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THE BOOK OF 
RED AND YELLOW 

BEING A STORY S< 

OF BLOOD AND A "^3 3^ 
YELLOW STREAK 



By 
FRANCIS CLEMENT KELLEY 






M 



CHICAGO 

The Catholic Church Extension Society 
OF the United States of America 

1916 



'/O. 



Press of 

The Henry O. Shepard CkD. 

632 Sherman Street 

Chicago 






Copyright, 1915, 

by 

FRANCIS C. KELLEY 

Chicago 







The Book of Red and Yellow 

READERS of this book who have been following European war 
news will understand the reference to colors in the title. A friend 
suggested that I could appropriately call it " The Red Book," 
because it is a tale of blood. Another urged that " The Yellow Book " 
might be a better title, since it shows the yellow streak in human nature. 
Both suggestions appealed to me; but the using of both titles together 
seems better still. This book tells a tale of blood and shows the yellow 
streak in some human beings. The trail of the coward is over the per- 
petrators of the outrages which here are told. No one but a coward 
could take advantage of weakness and murder innocence. " The Book 
of Red and Yellow " expresses exactly what I want to express. 

A few months ago strange rumors of outrages committed by the 
Constitutionalists in Mexico began to appear in American papers. The 
first inclination of practically all who read the items was to doubt; 
and the second inclination to shrug the shoulders and say : " Well, it's 
war." Even in Mexico itself, when the news of the horrors at Durango 
was received, Mexicans themselves charitably said to one another: 
" These things are the work only of irresponsible leaders and in one 
place. They do not imply that the Revolutionists have any such program 
in mind. Those who have done these fearful things will, in due time, 
be punished." But we were all wrong. 

When §altillo fell, the outrages were repeated. At Zacatecas they 
not only were repeated, but new infamies were added. At other cities, 
Zacatecas was outdone. Then the horrors were visited on every city and 
state taken by the Constitutionalist forces. 

Some refugees from Mexico at last began to cross the American line. 
The border towns of Texas rapidly filled up with them. At Vera Cruz 
there were so many that they became a serious problem to the American 
authorities. Not only were officers of the Federal army, officials of the 
Huerta government and other political exiles among the refugees, but also 
priests who had never taken up arms or interfered in political matters, 
sisters whose lives had been given up to teaching the works of charity, 
brothers who had spent themselves on the education of the Mexican 
youth, bishops and archbishops. Over five hundred of these religious 
refugees came into the American lines. Most of them were destitute. 
Practically all had been robbed of everything they possessed. They told 



4 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

of hardships, of murders, of crimes worse than murder, and of sacrileges. 
It was the men who heard these stories, many of them officers of the 
United States army and navy, who, shocked and outraged in their finer 
•feelings, spread the awful news, which now began to reach the ears of the 
American people in all its repulsiveness. 

It seemed, however, as if a conspiracy of silence had been organized. 
Reputable papers, supposed to be anxious to print the truth and to give 
the news, did neither. Statesmen, so-called, pooh-poohed everything. 
The man on the street said the thing was too horrible for credence. The 
wily politician saw danger ; but all the time the people in Vera Cruz, who 
had hearts, saw red. 

►!- 

At last a pitiful appeal to charity, to feed the hungry, to clothe the 
naked, and to give asylum to the homeless, reached The Catholic Church 
Extension Society, chiefly through the efforts of the Rev. R. H. Tierney, 
Editor of America, and the Rev. H. A. Constantineau, Provincial Treas- 
urer of the Oblate Fathers in San Antonio. It was plain to the directors 
of the Society that, if they could not do justice to these suffering exiles, 
they could, at least, be charitable to them. The Most Reverend James E. 
Quigley, D.D., Archbishop of Chicago, at once directed me, as President 
of the Society, to go wherever the refugees were, and use what funds 
were needed to assist them. I proceeded at once to Texas, saw the situa- 
tion, relieved the immediate needs in San Antonio, El Paso, Laredo, 
Galveston, etc., and then started for Vera Cruz. Before taking the boat 
for that point, I learned by cable that, when the news of the impending 
evacuation , of that port by the American troops was given out, all the 
refugees who could go had left for Cuba. I went to Havana instead of 
Vera Cruz, and found as many of these refugees in Cuba as we had in 
the United States, but in a far more deplorable condition. With the 
funds at my disposal, I spent what was needed, and came back to report 
to the Board of Governors of the Society and beg that more assistance 
be extended. 

While in Texas I had the opportunity of hearing the stories of the 
refugees and investigating them. Knowing that there would be more of 
these stories in Cuba, I requested the Archbishop of New Orleans, who 
spoke Spanish and who had been a bishop in Porto Rico, to come with me. 
He kindly agreed to do this ; and His Grace took especial care of the 
investigations, securing information which perhaps could never have been 
secured otherwise. 

On my return to Chicago, the Society took further action and author- 
ized me to pay the expenses incident to saving and helping the remaining 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 5 

priests and sisters at Vera Cruz, should the Government fail to act favor- 
ably on the request of the refugees for transportation to Galveston. Our 
appeal to the charity of American Catholics has not been in vain, yet 
much still remains to be done. I publish this book in the hope that it 
will stir up even a greater manifestation of charity. The Board of 
Governors of the Society, relying on this, has authorized the publication. 
Our motives are purely charitable and humanitarian. The .Society 
declines to enter into the discussion of these things except from that 
standpoint. We have no political axe to grind. We do not propose 
to attach blame to any one, much less to the administration now in 
power in Washington. If mistakes have been made, good-will may 
rectify them in part. If the President and his advisors have been 
deceived, one can readily understand that it was an easy matter to 
deceive them. They were not on the ground. No one can read this 
story without knowing that it was to the interests of some party or 
parties to lend themselves to such deception. That the deception was a 
crime every reasonable man and woman will concede ; and the crime is all 
the clearer in that the sufferers have, as usual, been the innocent. If there 
were no refugees except political ones, we could be sorry for them ; but 
we would be obliged to admit that chances must be taken in Mexican 
politics. The political refugees, however, formed the minority. Those 
who had committed no crime, and who had not mixed in political 
squabbles of any kind, had to suffer the most. 

It will easily be understood that I can not give the names of persons 
and places referred to in many of the statements to follow. After reading 
the statements, and considering the conditions in Mexico, the reader will 
not wonder why, in the majority of instances, such details had to be 
left out. I do not care to sign death-warrants. But I have the original 
documents in my possession, or I know where they are, and have con- 
sulted them. They may be examined by those who have a right to see 
them and whose honesty in asking for them is beyond question. 



I. 

The General Conditions of the Persecution. 
To begin I give a partial list of the outrages which have been com- 
mitted in the name of " liberty " and the Constitution, by the men who 
claim to be fighting in Mexico for both. Not one single charge is over- 
drawn. I give them as they were given to me, not by a few individuals, 
but practically by all. I append proofs which can not be questioned. 

first. 
The Constitutionalists in Mexico have attempted to destroy, and prac- 
tically have destroyed, three-fourths, if not more, of the Catholic Church 
in their country ; which means that they have destroyed three-fourths of 
all the organized religious forces in Mexico. They did it deliberately, and 
as a result of a prearranged plan. They did it remorselessly and cruelly. 

SECOND. 

These same men drove out of Mexico, imprisoned or sent into hiding 
in fear of their lives, practically all the Catholic bishops in the Republic. 
Of those who remain, one alone is exercising his ministry unimpeded, 
because he is in the territory held by General Zapata, who is not and was 
not at any time subject to Carranza's authority. Of the others still on 
Mexican soil, three to my certain knowledge are in hiding, and one is in 
the penitentiary, sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for no crime 
whatever. To this charge may be added that of driving into exile priests 
and Sisters of Charity, religious men and women of all kinds, some of 
whom are Mexican citizens and some citizens of other nations. 

THIRD. 

These same men were guilty of seizing private property, even property 
held in the names of individuals, only because such property was used for 
religious purposes. They looted churches, destroyed libraries, scientific 
laboratories, colleges, schools, museums of Mexican archeology, valuable 
manuscripts and residences. They practically wiped off the map of 
Mexico her best institutions for higher education. 

FOURTH. 

They imprisoned, tortured and murdered priests and teachers. 

FIFTH. 

They committed most abominable and unspeakably vile outrages 
against the persons and virtue of young girls, good women, and Sisters 
whose lives had been vowed to the service of Almighty God. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 7 

SIXTH. 

They interdicted practices of religion publicly under the penalty of 
death. ^ 

SEVENTH. 

They usurped ecclesiastical jurisdiction by appointing to office, in what 
was left of the Church, such men as they pleased. 

EIGHTH. 

In order to carry these things out with some show of reason, they 
published the vilest lies against the Church and her clergy. 

NINTH. 

Proclaiming their desire for a free government under a constitution, 
they destroyed absolutely the liberty of the press, suppressing all news- 
papers and other publications not controlled and directed by themselves. 

TENTH. 

In various other ways they set aside the very Constitution to which 
they proclaimed allegiance, and set it aside deliberately. 



Before taking up the discussion of these charges, a word about the 
Revolution itself. Porfirio Diaz had given peace to Mexico, but had ruled 
the country as a dictator. The rebellion against him by Francisco Madero 
was successful, and Madero himself was legally elected President of the 
Republic. It is probable that Madero was the first President really 
elected by the people themselves. If there were irregularities in his 
election, these irregularities could not have changed the result. Under 
Madero, an attempt was made to give Mexico a constitutional form of 
government, or rather to put the Constitution into effect for the first 
time. It was not an ideal constitution. The addition to it of the Laws of 
Reform of Benito Juarez made it even less desirable. Neither of these 
were ideal democratic documents, but they were the law. The murder 
of Madero was a vile act, but it was never proven that Madero's suc- 
cessor, General Huerta, had been a party to that murder. Huerta himself 
was selected to succeed Madero in accordance with all the forms of law. 
He was a strong man, democratic, and fairly just. His government was a 
dictatorship like that of Diaz ; but this much can be said of him : he 
could have brought peace to Mexico. He was prevented from doing 
this, however, by a new revolution headed by Governor Venustiano Car- 
ranza. The new revolution was fostered by influences from the United 
States. No revolution is possible in Mexico otherwise, since Mexico has 
no facilities for supplying arms and ammunition. All arms and ammuni- 



8 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

tion for Carranza's outbreak were supplied by American firms, whose 
names are known, and who could easily have been prevented from supply- 
ing them. To end any revolution in Mexico, it is only necessary to forbid 
the sending of arms from the United States into that country. The 
Carranza forces had unlimited supplies, both of arms and money with 
which to buy them. They were successful, and were aided to their suc- 
cess by the closing of the port of Vera Cruz to Huerta. I do not question 
the right of our Government to close the port. Neither do I criticize the 
attitude of the administration to Huerta. I merely state the facts. On 
the face of things, it looked as if the people were fighting for constitutional 
government. I desire to show, in a general way in this chapter, how far 
the actions of the Constitutionalists agreed with their professions. 



In the beginning, the outrages committed by Carranza's army were 
few, but at Durango it was clearly seen that the first step of the revolu- 
tion was to be the utter destruction of religion. The Constitutionalists 
found at Durango a venerable and holy old man, who had long been the 
archbishop of that diocese. He was immediately arrested and from him 
was demanded a ransom of $500,000. Now, the people of Mexico are not 
rich. The Church is not rich. There was no union between Church and 
State, and there had not been such a union for fifty years. The Con- 
stitutionalists might as well have asked the archbishop for $500,000,000 
as for $500,000. He had not the money to give. He told his captors so. 
They flung him into prison. When they released him, it was only to keep 
him in durance within the city limits. They showered indignities upon 
his head. They arrested his clergy, exiled many, closed churches ; in a 
word, they did all they could to stamp out religion in Durango. Some 
good people got together a few thousand dollars. Seeing that they could 
get no more, the Constitutionalists released the archbishop, but drove 
him out of the city. He went to Morelia, where again he was held for 
ransom, and again some good people bought his liberty. Then, after two 
months of this sort of thing, he escaped to the United States. I saw him, 
a sad old man, broken in health, but uncomplaining. Had I depended 
upon him for information, however, I would have had none. He suffered 
in silence, but I received the information from others, even those who 
were eye-witnesses of the affair. 

Here is a statement by one of these eye-witnesses to the taking of the 
city of Durango by the Carranzista forces. I dare not give his name, for 
fear of the consequences to himself if he returns to Mexico : 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 9 

No sooner were the Constitutionalists in the city, under the command 
of General Tomas Urbina, than there was a tremendous riot among them, 
and the second general in command was killed and a great number of 
others perished. 

On hearing the first reports of the riot, crowds forced open the doors 
of all business houses, ransacking and setting fire afterward to them. 
Nine palaces and many houses were wiped out. Leading families who, 
previous to this horrible episode, had been considered rich, to-day have 
not even bread to eat, and many are without clothing. 

The outrages committed did not cease at this point, but increased, and, 
on the second day, without court-martial, all the officials and chiefs taken 
during the battle or after were sentenced to death, thus disregarding 
entirely the guarantees and promises not to execute any one. Repre- 
sentatives of the leaders entered the archbishop's palace and other private 
homes, forcibly carrying with them those who had taken refuge there. 
Notwithstanding the entreaties of the sisters, mothers, wives and children, 
they were conducted as the vilest criminals to the dirtiest and unhealthiest 
prison cells. The day after they were compelled to beg from door to 
door the tremendous amount of money that had been demanded as ran- 
soms. In the meantime other groups of armed men entered and pro- 
faned the Church of the Jesuit Fathers ; and the Carmelites were horribly 
insulted and outraged. In the cathedral where the remains of the dead 
bishops and archbishops had been laid they scattered the remains with 
their swords. Not satisfied with this, they then approached the arch- 
bishop's palace, addressing the archbishop in very unbecoming language 
and demanded $500,000 as a " loan," which amount he was unable to pay, 
and he was thereupon taken to jail, notwithstanding the fact that he was 
in an almost dying condition. Not even a chair or bed was given him, 
and he was left on the floor of the condemned cell. 

These acts and others filled all the city with consternation, which 
increased by the hearing of other outrages which have been committed 
against families, and more especially so when priests were seen arrested 
for the mere fact of their profession and because they were unable to pay 
the money demanded of them. 

4- 

What was done at Durango was the rule whenever the rebels con- 
quered a new territory, and, when the payment of ransom was not 
sufficient, exile followed. Very early also in the conquests of the 
Constitutionalists came the same outrages in Matamoros. In both Dur- 
ango and Matamoros the churches were pillaged, the desecrating of the 
graves of the dead bishops was done with the object of discovering if 
there might be some valuable objects buried with them. Swords were 
run through the disinterred bodies. That all this was premeditated and 
part of a plan, Carranza and the leaders themselves declared. In dis- 
courses published in their newspapers, they claimed that they intended 
to destroy militarism, capital and the clergy. It was in carrying out this 
plan that the cities were given to pillage, estates seized and religion 
trampled upon. It was a crime to have been a soldier in the Federal 



10 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

army, to be a rich man, no matter how honestly the riches might have 
been gained, or to be a priest, teacher or Sister, no matter how much 
charity or good work had been done as such. There was no process of 
law. The Cathedral Chapters of Durango, Monterey, Zacatecas, Guada- 
lajara, Puebla, etc., they dissolved by Constitutionalist authority. 



The following statement, sworn to by the writers before a notary, 
gives an idea of the way the persecution was carried on in the north. 

From its very beginning the Constitutionalist Revolutionary Party 
of Mexico showed itself to be anti-religious, as is proven by the injustices 
committed in the State of Sonora, Sinaloa and Chihuahua against priests 
and church property. But not in the degree that it afterward attained. 
Don Venustiano Carranza, who never before had shown signs of " clero- 
phobia," allowed himself, according to our belief, to be influenced by 
certain members of what is known in Mexico as the " Reform Party," 
the same that tried to force Francisco I. Madero into a religious persecu- 
tion. From then on, the irreligious spirit of the Constitutionalists' revolu- 
tion appeared unmasked. 

We shall say nothing of what preceded the taking of Monterey from 
lack of concrete data sufficiently authenticated. 

Monterey. — They took Monterey, the capital of the State of Nuevo 
Leon, on April 24, 1914. According to the general custom, the Revolu- 
tionary officials left the churches undisturbed, but on the 27th of the 
same month they ordered all churches closed, and took possession of the 
keys. On May 12 the priests were cited to appear. Accordingly the 
Vicar-General, sixteen foreign and several Mexican priests went to the 
place appointed, where a " loan " of $500,000 was demanded of them. As 
they declared themselves unable to give such an immense sum, they were 
put in prison. By the intervention of their respective consuls, the for- 
eigners were set free, but at the same time declared banished from Mex- 
ican soil. The Vicar-General and the other Mexican priests remained 
in jail. 

The archbishop's palace was occupied by the rebels, who destroyed a 
magnificent library and possessed themselves of the archives of the arch- 
diocese. The printing-press of the archbishopric was taken over for the 
publication of the impious newspaper, El Bonete, in the pages of which 
were published, in an attempt to dishonor the priesthood, the documents 
found in the secret archives. (Records of diocesan disciplinary cases. 
—Ed.) 

On June 7 they publicly burned the confessionals and other church 
furniture. They also publicly profaned the statues of the saints in the 
streets, casting lots on them and shooting at those which by lot were 
determined as " Huertistas." There were, moreover, numerous spolia- 
tions, robberies and other excesses committed in the churches. 

As a climax to these infamous proceedings, the Governor of the State 
issued a decree, under date of July 14, in which, after an introduction 
very offensive to the clergy, which he designated as " corrupt and cor- 
rupting," religious liberty was practically abolished- 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 11 

In several towns of this State were committed acts of sacrilegious sav- 
agery. In Tanquecillos, for example, they profaned the sacred vestments, 
using them for a dance. At Margaritas, the Ciborium of the Tabernacle 
was used in drinking " mescal." At Cerralbo they took the statues of the 
saints, not excepting that of the national devotion. Our Lady of Guada- 
lupe, and cast them into a well, mutilating that of Our Lady of Lourdes 
to make it small enough to be forced in, at the same time issuing a decree 
in which it was declared that anyone caught trying to rescue the statues 
would be summarily executed. In Las Aldamas the churches were con- 
verted into barracks. A certain Father Regalado was obliged to walk a 
distance of about eighty miles, from Linares to Victoria. Another priest, 
Father Martin, parish priest of Galeana, was robbed of all he had, and it 
was only by fleeing to the mountains that he freed himself from still 
worse treatment. 

Tepic. — The city of Tepic, capital of the territory by that name, was 
captured in the middle of May. They imprisoned the bishop, Rt. Rev. 
Andres Segura, and Very Rev. Ramon Vilalto, Superior of the Mission- 
ary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in the penitentiary about the 
17th of the same month, sentencing them to eight years' imprisonment. 
Other priests were left at liberty, although forbidden to leave the city. 
That, at least, was the belief at first, but now we know that all the Mis- 
sionary Fathers of the Heart of Mary residing there are actually in 
prison. 

Saltillo. — This city, capital of Coahuila, fell into the hands of the 
Revolutionists in the beginning of June, if we are not mistaken. It is 
impossible to describe what the priests suffered there. Eight of them 
(four Jesuits, three Eudists and a Benedictine) were shut up in a dark 
room, and kept there eight days. Then, at midnight the door was opened, 
and they were told they were condemned to death. One by one they 
were taken out, and with each of them a mock execution was carried 
out in the minutest details — the line of sharpshooters, the signal to fire, 
the discharge and even the falling of the body, which was produced by a 
push from behind. Afterward they were taken in a stock car to Torreon, 
where they were shamefully paraded through the streets ; and from there 
they were taken through Cuidad Juarez to the border. We have been told 
that other priests were forced to suffer the torment of the gallows, being 
tied by the neck and lifted into the air. One of them was raised thus 
three times, until he lost consciousness. 

Zacatecas. — This is the capital of the state of the same name, and 
was taken June 3 at sundown. Immediately after they captured Rev. 
Inocencio Lopez Velarde, who was a Fiscal Promoter, Professor of the 
Seminary and Chaplain of the Theresian Sisters, and after robbing him, 
took him to the outskirts of the city and killed him, afterward maltreating 
his dead body, which was found the next day, the head and chest riddled 
with bullets. On the 4th, early in the morning, they went to the College 
of the Christian Brothers, and took away its chaplain, Father Pascual 
Vega, and Brothers Adrian and Adolph, president and vice-president, 
respectively. All three were conducted to Bufa Hill and shot. No one 
in the city knew where they were till on the third day their bodies were 
found half-buried. The other brothers were sent to prison and subjected to 



12 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

a thousand indignities. On the 25th all the priests of the cities were cited 
to appear. Twenty-three priests, headed by the Vicar-General, presented 
themselves. They were menaced with death if they would not give on the 
same day before 6 p.m. a " loan " of $1,000,000, and were incarcerated 
in a miserable dungeon. There they were kept three days without food 
or drink and in danger of asphyxiation. In the afternoon of that day the 
"loan" was demanded, they took out the Vicar-General and another priest, 
pretending that they were to be shot, and at the same time threatening 
the others with a like punishment if they would not quickly give the sum 
demanded. Knowing very well that it was impossible for them to collect 
such a fabulous amount, especially if they kept them locked up, the 
Revolutionists allowed three of them to go out, and they were able to 
get together $14,000. The rebels took this sum, but ordered them to 
continue their begging among the faithful until they collected at least 
$100,000. They did so, but they were told that $4,000 was missing, and 
obliged them to go out again and collect that sum, but they were not even 
then set at liberty. They were kept in jail until the night of July 3, 
when they were taken to the depot and put in a dirty box-car and sent to 
Torreon and Cuidad Juarez, guarded by a convoy of drunken soldiers, 
who were constantly menacing them with their guns. There they were 
despoiled of all they had and were obliged to take refuge in the United 
States. The Episcopal palace was changed into a barracks. 

A brutal deed was perpetrated at Villa de Guadalupe. Father 
Valeriano Medina, a charitable priest, was taking care of the wounded in 
the parish school, which he had converted into a hospital. The Revolu- 
tionists entered the house on horseback, killing some of the patients with 
their horse's hoofs, and taking the others out to be shot. The Father, 
who was the especial object of these outlaws' search, escaped. The parish 
priest of Cabra, Rev. Jesus Alba, was taken to the cemetery and killed. 

Aguascalientes. — The capital of the state of that name, was taken 
shortly after Zacatecas, and all the priests exiled. On the 4th of August, 
the confessionals and some statues of saints were publicly burned. 
Governor Fuentes threatened with death any priest who would attempt 
to exercise his ministry. 

San Luis Potosi. — July 17 they peacefully entered San Luis Potosi, 
capital of the state of that name. Nevertheless, this was one of the cities 
in which the clergy had to suffer most. On the 19th, they asked the Vicar- 
General for the bishop's carriage, and Col. Alberto de Avila struck him 
and put him in prison. Thanks to the German consul, he was liberated in 
two hours. 

On the 20th an order was published forbidding the celebratio'n of 
Mass on week days under penalty of $1,000 fine for the first offense, 
$2,000 for the second, $3,000 for the third, and either exile or death for 
the fourth. Confession, outside the danger of death, was prohibited, and 
even then only with a government official present to hear. Ringing of the 
bells was to be confined to secular uses. 

On July 25 a proclamation of exile for all priests was published, 
ordering them to be at the depot at five o'clock next morning. They 
complied, but had to wait until six in the evening, when the Carranzistas 
appeared. They allowed ten priests to remain for services in the city, 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 13 

and one other because he was sick. The other twenty-seven were put 
into a stock car and thus taken to Charcas. Here they were taken out, 
made to look into some wells, and threatened with being thrown into them. 
Then they took them to a hacienda and enclosed them in a sacristy, the 
walls of which were bespattered with human blood. After three days 
they relieved them of all they had. They detained the bishop's secretary, 
the first assistant of Del Sagrario parish, and a Franciscan monk. The 
others were freed on condition that they leave the country. They 
arrived at Monterey, via Saltillo, on July 31. Here the Vicar-General, 
Very Rev. Agustin Jimenez was detained. The others were again 
arrested, and taken under a guard to Nuevo Laredo, with orders to 
shoot anyone trying to escape. Then their photographs were taken, as if 
they were criminals, and they were obliged to cross the border. Among 
the exiles was Rev. Fr. Espinosa, a venerable Franciscan, ninety-four 
years of age. 

The magnificent Episcopal palace was sacked, and the books of its 
library sold at ridiculous prices. We hear, however, that an Englishman 
claimed the palace and everything contained therein as his own, and that 
it was turned over to him. 

QuERETARO. — This city, capital of the state of that name, was taken 
by the Carranzistas on the 29th of July. The same day Fathers Gabriel 
Goray, a Carmelite, and Sousa, a Franciscan, were kept in the De la Cruz 
[ barracks two days, and then driven through the streets on horseback, 
vested in their religious habits. Then they liberated the latter and made 
the former enter the army. The churches were all closed, the Revolu- 
tionalists keeping all the keys, except those of the churches San Jose and 
Santa Clara, which were deposited in the Spanish vice-consulate. In 
this vice-consulate several Spanish priests took refuge, and others hid 
themselves in various disguises. On the 30th or 31st the Catholic high 
school was attacked, and the Christian Brothers and the French vice- 
consul taken out by armed force. On the 3d of August the Seminary was 
changed into a Constitutionalist police station. On the 8th the con- 
fessionals were burned in Zena Garden. Father Rabago was imprisoned 
and Canon Florencio Rosas put in charge of the diocese of Queretaro. 
On the 11th they attacked the vice-consulate, taking prisoners the priests 
hidden there. These were taken at bayonet point to the barracks De la 
Alameda, thence to Griega, afterward back to the same barracks, and 
finally set free. On the 27th a large Catholic manifestation caused great 
fear among the Revolutionists. They exiled all the Spanish priests on 
the 29th, taking them to San Luis Potosi, where they were detained until 
September 12 and then sent to Laredo. The others were obliged to appear 
in the former bank of San Luis in order to declare what goods they 
possessed, how they acquired them and what were the possessions of the 
diocese. 

Gaunajuato. — On the 31st of July almost all the cities of this very 
rich state were captured. In the capital, on the 1st of August, " loans " 
were forced, heavier ones on priests than others. After a few days all 
the priests were convoked and told that confession was absolutely pro- 
hibited, even to the dying, and that any commission of ladies asking for 
repeal of these laws would not be received. 



14 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

Leon. — Although they entered this town July 31, they were expelled 
the next day by Pascual Orozco ; but regained it on August 2. They im- 
posed on the bishop a "loan" of $500,000, and, as his representatives could 
not collect more than $6,000 they took possession of the stipends and 
goods of the clergy. The canons were arrested and imprisoned in their 
own houses. Foreign priests were expelled. They prohibited the ringing 
of church bells and drove out the nuns from the convents. 

Irapuato. — Here the confessionals were burned August 3 ; confes- 
sion was prohibited under pain of death, and nuns exiled. They tried to 
kill the parish priest and Father Chavez. 

SiLAO. — They arrested all the priests, and, on giving them their free- 
dom, they kept as hostages the parish priest and another Father whom 
they robbed, even of the dinner and supper their families brought them. 

Celaya. — The Missionary Sons of the Heart of Mary hid themselves 
in near-by farms. The Archbishop of Michoacan, Most Rev. Leopoldo 
Ruiz, who happened to be there, hid himself in the home of a Catholic 
gentleman. The other priests hid in different houses in the city. One 
of the fugitives betrayed the others, telling where they were concealed, and 
all were captured. The Archbishop, Father Penaflor, a Franciscan, and 
Father Lara, a parish priest, were especially sought after. Thanks to the 

courage of Mr. C , who was on the point of being shot three or 

four times for not telling where His Grace was concealed, he was able 
to save himself by flight to a hacienda. Some others were also able to 
remain in hiding. Those who were imprisoned, in number about twenty- 
five, as they were unable to pay the $60,000 demanded, were exiled ; being 
taken to Laredo in a filthy stock car. 

Zamora. — It seems that in this town the venerable Archbishop of 
Durango was imprisoned, and with all his priests compelled to sweep the 
streets. He was taken, guarded and on foot, to Piedad, and from there 
by train to Irapuato, August 27, according to the account of an eye- 
witness. 

ToLUCA. — The Revolutionists entered this city, the capital of the 
State of Mexico, on August 8. On the 10th they closed all the churches, 
keeping the keys themselves, and they have not been opened until the 
present day. They laughed at a commission of Catholics who asked per- 
mission to have Mass, saying they would allow it if for each mass they 
paid them $300,000. The Sacraments and all public worship were pro- 
hibited. They arrested Fathers Garduno, Campos, Orhalas and Joaquin. 
The Passionist Fathers, nine in number, whose hiding-places were dis- 
covered, were taken prisoners and incarcerated for fifteen days ; then 
permitted to go to the Spanish vice-consulate on the express condition 
that they would leave the Republic within fifteen days. Because he would 
not disclose the hiding-place of the Holy Cross Fathers, Brother Mariano 
Gonzales, of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, was 
shot. 

The Church of Carmen was plundered, a very large and beautiful 
statue of the Sacred Heart chopped to pieces, and the sacred vessels, 
jewels and ornaments of the statues stolen. They also sacked the Church 
of La Merced and were engaged in burning various things taken there- 
from until eleven at night. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 16 

In nearly the whole city of Toluca there was no priest to baptize, for 
all were in hiding. 

Finally Father Paredes tried to make some arrangement, but was able 
to obtain absolutely nothing. Before this a decree was published, which 
reached even the absurdity of prohibiting fasting and mortification, etc. 

Mexico. — In the capital of the Government religion has relatively 
suflfered less. However, Father Paredes was set up as Vicar-General. 
About thirty priests have been arrested, and some of them beaten. For 
example. Father Zaragoesa. The House of Retreat of the Angels was 
changed to a barracks, and the confessionals of its Oratory burned in the 
streets. The Church of St. Bridget was closed and the Carranzistas took 
possession of the rectory, etc. 

PuEBLA. — In this, the capital of the state. Father Escobedo was placed 
as administrator of the diocese. They dissolved the Cathedral Chapter 
and exiled its members; the confessionals of many of the churches were 
taken away and stored in a cellar. The places in the cathedral formerly 
occupied by the confessionals were marked with secret society emblems. 
The pulpit of the cathedral was declared open to all. A decree was pub- 
lished suppressing confession. A dance was held in the chapel of the 
Catholic College of the Jesuits. By another decree all religious were 
expelled. They took possession of De la Salle College and others. They 
made a barracks of the Episcopal palace, etc. 

Vera Cruz. — The capital of this state being protected by American 
troops, all has been peaceful there, but in some cities of the state atrocities 
have been perpetrated. 

At Tepozotlan they stole the ciborium, dropping the Sacred Hosts 
on the floor, and not permitting them to be gathered up until two days 
later. 

At Jalapa all priests were expelled, being given twenty-four hours to 
leave. 

In Cordoba all the churches were taken possession of and a decree of 
expulsion against all priests was published. 

Orizaba fell into the hands of the Carranzistas August 24. Four 
days after all nuns were expelled. Afterward, by proclamation, all priests 
were banished and the churches closed; all except that of El Calvario, 
for fear of the people. Mass, however, was not allowed to be said there. 

The above statements give a very general idea of the persecutions. 
In the chapters to follow a few statements more in detail are given. 



11. 

Guadalajara. 

This statement I print in full. To attempt to compress it would be to 
destroy its force. It was written by an exile who suffered the horrors of 
the persecution himself. Were I to take the facts as a basis for writing 
the story myself I would, at the same time, take a note of personal 
experience out of it, which could only destroy some of the vividness of 
the sad narration. 

" After a weak show of resistance and a sham battle on the outskirts 
of the city, Huerta's troops abandoned the city of Guadalajara in the 
night between the 7th and 8th of July, 1914. During the sortie the ineffi- 
cient General Mier was killed and his small army scattered. At the same 
time the army of General Obregon entered the city by detachments. They 
met no resistance from the inhabitants, but were acclaimed by a number 
of ragged workingmen and some revolutionists of the city. Up to this 
time it was thought that the Huerta newspapers were libeling his oppo- 
nents and that the Obregonistas were not as barbarous as the Villistas and 
their kind. The invaders themselves declared that the city of Guadalajara 
would be convinced that the Constitutionalist cause was that of peace and 
justice; and they ordered the motto of Juarez to be engraved over the 
door of every school : ' Respect for the rights of others is peace.' The 
irony of this motto is great. Scarcely had the Constitutionalists entered the 
city when they confiscated all the automobiles. They began with that of the 
archbishop, which Obregon appropriated for himself. They took all the 
carriages and fine horses. The officers broke into the houses of the well- 
to-do, whether they were at home or away. They camped there and 
parceled out among themselves and their women and friends the furniture, 
table service, and even the clothes of the women and children of the house. 
They searched everywhere for the officials of the Huerta government, 
for the principal employees of that government, for the members of the 
Catholic party and for every one whom they considered political enemies. 
A number of these were shot, some with the greatest cruelty. 

" General Obregon managed to restrain individual outrages of his 
soldiers, but the pillage went on unchecked in other forms as violent and 
as criminal. The barracks were left empty, while the troops were pur- 
posely lodged in the most flourishing and best-kept institutions of learning 
and charity. On July 9 a picket of soldiers was placed at all the doors of 

16 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 17 

the Jesuit College. This is the best in the city, and possesses a fine equip- 
ment of physical and chemical apparatus from Europe. The rector had 
just left the classrooms on the first floor, when a band of Yaqui Indians, 
bedecked with feathers, entered and camped with their women in the 
clean and elegant lecture-rooms. Colonel Calderon, one-time school- 
master and afterward an inmate of San Juan de Ulua prison, and now 
a shining light in the Constitutionalist army, although without any educa- 
tion and evidently without principle, took for himself the rector's room 
and quartered his officers and musicians in the upper stories. He refused 
to listen to protests. He made no effort to stop the destruction of scien- 
tific instruments which was going on, nor did he respect the French flag 
which hung above the door of the building. Only one who has seen it 
can picture a barracks in Mexico. It is a mass of human bodies, filthy 
men, women and children, who cook their meals, make their beds, wash 
their clothes and bathe themselves in view of all. They live with all 
'their instruments, arms, playthings and animals heaped around them. 

" As the spoliation was to be accomplished by degrees, the rector was 
allowed a miserable lodging in the barracks, which he had to accept, 
unless he wished to sleep in the street. For several days he was not 
allowed to pass out the door of his own house. Colonel Calderon's 
troops are the most moral, if there can be any morality among soldiers 
where the petty thefts of the enlisted men are punished by death, while 
wholesale thefts are committed with impunity by the officers. Calderon's 
troops are composed of full-blood Yaquis, who possess a religion of a kind, 
in that they carry pictures and medals of saints on their hats and show 
respect toward churches and priests. On this account the Constitu- 
tionalists dissemble the war which they are making on religion by leading 
the Indians to think that they are pursuing, not their beloved priests, but 
one Mr. Clergyman (Don Clero), whom they portray as the worst of 
criminals. The Yaquis showed respect to the Jesuit priests who continued 
to live among them. The Indians did not destroy the furniture and 
apparatus except after the example of some of the officers who came 
there. 

" The other colleges suffered even a worse fate. The ecclesiastical sem- 
inary, which is one of the finest buildings in the city, was occupied by 
troops and horses the same day that the Jesuit College was entered. At 
once officers and soldiers began to sack it. They threw the books out of 
the windows or sold them for 10 cents a volume to any one who would 
buy. Still worse was the occupation of the College of the Ladies of the 
Sacred Heart. This is an English establishment. But the consul pro- 
tested in vain, and the flag of that country was not respected. The most 
shameless troops, with their women and horses, took possession of the 



18 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW . 

beautiful garden of the nuns. The women camp-followers afterward 
entered the sleeping apartments of the Sisters and stole the clothes of the 
nuns and their pupils. They dressed themselves up in these, or sold the 
finest clothes and furniture for a pittance and destroyed what they could 
not use or sell. The sick and wounded were placed in the infirmary of 
the college, notwithstanding that there was no need of it, because there 
was plenty of room in the hospitals. The soldiers and their shameless 
women went to bed in the rooms of the Sisters and pupils. The teachers 
and children had fled the evening before at the approach of the bandits. 

" It can not be said that these outrages were committed only b)^ the 
soldiers, and without the knowledge or consent of the so-called Generals 
Obregon, Lucio Blanco, Rafael Buelma, Benjamin Hill, and the pre- 
tended Governor, M. M. Dieguez. The last-named was once a miner at 
Cananea and a resident for several years in San Juan de Ulua prison on 
account of a mine theft committed by him at Cananea. These were the 
men who, for the purpose of uplifting society, advancing civilization and 
spreading the sciences, preferred to leave the many barracks and other 
available public buildings unoccupied and to lodge their troops in these 
centers of learning. These were the men who commanded the flags of 
foreign nations to be taken down from the houses and who threatened the 
consuls who dared defend their countrymen or who would attempt to 
appeal at any time to Mexico City or Washington. These Constitutional- 
ist leaders were informed and led by the secret society members of the 
place, who are more intelligent but not less savage than themselves, and 
who advised them to levy their heaviest tolls on Catholics and to imprison, 
as they did, the priests and other persons whom they pointed out as 
enemies deserving to be shot. These Constitutionalist leaders are the 
very men who closed all the courts, so that nobody could defend his 
rights. They destroyed all means of communication, so that they would 
not have to obey any one, even Carranza himself. Finally they got a 
woman of the underworld, a notorious character called Atala Apodaca, 
to proclaim war unto death upon the Catholic priests. And they published 
the vilest attacks and the grossest calumnies in two or three miserable 
sheets, which were the only papers they allowed to be circulated. 

" At first they did not persecute the priests so violently. But before 
long the mask dropped from their faces. They faked a plot of the clergy 
which had for its object to make the people rise against the new govern- 
ment. On July 21 Governor Dieguez gave an order forcibly to arrest all 
the priests of the city and to take possession of all the churches. Soldiers 
were let loose in detachments of fifty. They went through the whole city 
and arrested not only the priests, but also the sextons and even persons 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 19 

found praying in the churches. They took the Marist Brothers, with 
many boys who were at play in the college. They arrested a number of 
servants, and even some seamstresses, whom they accused of having made 
mustaches and beards to disguise the priests. The poor prisoners were 
forced to pass the night in the barracks, cooped up in foul-smelling cells, 
where they had to stand or to sit among drunken soldiers, who pointed 
their guns at them and brutally threatened and vilely insulted them. The 
prisoners were stripped of everything — money, watches, books, and even 
glasses. Among them were sick people who were brought in on cots. 
These were simply the orders of Governor Dieguez, which were carried 
out by his bloodthirsty troops. They were eager to shoot, without investi- 
gation, any one whom a drunken or furious officer might point out. 

" The following day they filled the Escobedo prison with more than 
one hundred and twenty priests of all nationalities. Among them was 
the Bishop of Tehuantepec, Rt. Rev. Ignacio Plasencia, who was visiting 
in the city. The accusers did not even know the names of the prisoners. 
Three improvised courts made ridiculous the forms of justice. They 
afterwards declared that ' no cause was found for proceeding against the 
defendants ' (' no haber habido causa para proceder en contra ') . Mean- 
while the prisoners were kept isolated (incommunicado) in the dungeons 
for six or seven days, against all the laws of the country. To inquiries 
by friends as to what offense they had committed or what charge there 
was against them, the only answer was ' these are the orders of General 
Dieguez.' 

►J- 

" The Catholics of the city were in consternation. There would have 
been an uprising, except for the fear that the innocent prisoners would 
be shot. There was no service on Sunday, nor were the bells rung. The 
churches were not opened during these days, except to save the Sacred 
Hosts such as had not been profaned. These had been picked up and 
removed (recogidas) by pious women. Meantime the Constitutionalists 
took advantage of these days to invade the churches. They profaned 
them with their troops and women. They stole everything of value in 
some of them. And they searched for arms and cannon which they said 
were hidden there. They even opened and profaned the graves and 
announced that they had found bodies of persons assassinated by the 
clerical party, together with the arms which they had hidden there. All 
that they really did find was thirty or more old guns which had been 
bought for 25 cents each by the Marist Brothers for the military drills of 
their students. The Constitutionalists celebrated this find as a victory, 
and made vague assertions about having found even a cannon and dyna- 
mite bombs in nobody-knows-what hiding-place of the priests. They 



20 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

kept up these charges until they made themselves ridiculous. Then they 
abandoned them for others equally false and such as could be invented 
only by vi^ild men, A w^eek later, when Obregon returned from Colima, 
"they began to set the priests free v^^ithout any more order or judgment 
than was shown before. They were allowed to depart, minus the money 
which had been stolen from them in part or altogether in the various 
places where they had been. 

" The Jesuits did not return to their college, because they were for- 
bidden to. Moreover, the officers and soldiers had cleaned out everything 
of use to themselves. They had eyen gone so far as to sell to any one 
who wished to buy costly scientific apparatus for which they took a dollar 
or two. Colonel Calderon, who was careful under other circumstances, 
now showed that his sectarianism was equal to his lack of culture. He 
had promised to protect the library and scientific laboratories. For fifteen 
days he had lived with the Jesuits. During that time he was convinced 
that they were honorable gentlemen. But to no avail. Calderon let them 
be thrown into prison as common criminals. Not only did he not protest 
himself, but he paid no attention to the protest of some of his officers and 
almost all of the soldiers. The college was occupied thenceforth by a 
guard of soldiers, and the musicians and their families. No protection 
was afforded the college, either by the captain who was sick there, or by 
Dieguez, to whom notice was given, or by Secretary Berlanga, who, with 
cynicism, had come some days before to see for himself the fine equip- 
ment and perfect arrangement of the physical and chemical and natural- 
history laboratories and the library. Finally, August 3, the college 
building was confiscated, with all that it contained, without allowing the 
priests to take even their personal effects or clothes. 



" Many of the professors in the colleges of the Jesuit Fathers, the 
Ladies of the Sacred Heart and the Marist Brothers were Mexicans. But 
most of them were foreigners who had come to Mexico to supply the lack 
of Mexicans in these congregations. And, so as to destroy them with less 
trouble, the Constitutionalists made up their minds to banish the foreign 
priests and professors from Guadalajara. In order to suppress the col- 
lege of the nuns, all they had to do was to take away the building and 
steal or destroy everything in it, 

" August 5, Mr. Lobato, mayor of the city (presidente del ayuntami- 
ento), who is a man of some education, but with rabid anti-Catholic 
notions, directed the foreign consuls to call their nationals among the 
priests and professors to the city hall (palacio de ayuntamiento) in order 
to define to them their situation. About forty-eight gathered there. He 
marched them through the streets to the government palace (palacio del 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 21 

gohierno) to hear the orders of Dieguez. The Governor did not show 
himself. He is an uncouth person, who does not know how to talk. 
Instead, his secretary, M. Aguierre Berlanga, appeared. He is as small 
in mind as he is in body. If he knows how to write, certainly he can not 
speak or appear to advantage before people. He spoke in the name of 
Dieguez. He said that, although most were innocent, nevertheless for 
political reasons the Governor would banish them in three days from 
Mexican soil. They all protested against such a flagrant violation of the 
Constitution and the international laws committed by these very persons 
who called themselves Constitutionalists. The application of the thirty- 
third article of the Constitution — namely, the expulsion of " pernicious " 
foreigners without formal trial, is reserved to the President of the Repub- 
lic alone. They appealed to Carranza and to all the foreign consuls. But 
no attention was paid to anybody, nor were telegrams allowed to be sent. 
The foreigners were compelled to leave by the port of Manzanillo, 
although that port was still occupied by Federals. To their protests, 
Dieguez replied that the Constitutionalists would be in possession of the 
port in three days and that the exiles meantime could wait any place they 
pleased, even in the field of battle, until the way should be cleared. As 
the foreigners were Europeans, they asked Dieguez to delay the banish- 
ment until the road to Vera Cruz should be opened, because Carranza 
was on the point of entering Mexico and it would be less expensive for 
all of them to leave the country by this road. Dieguez replied that they 
must leave by way of Manzanillo, in spite of its unhealthy climate. From 
there they might go any place they chose. He would do no more than 
put them on a ship. He would not give them any assistance for the 
journey. All that he would grant was five days, without any extension of 
time. Since Dieguez is as stupid as he is fanatical, the decent people of 
Guadalajara could not impress upon him the barbarity of this banish- 
ment by way of Manzanillo nor the need of assistance felt by these men 
who had been robbed of everything they possessed, nor the violation of 
all law and justice which he was committing against all foreign nations 
by forbidding them communication with their consuls in Mexico or the 
United States. 

" On August 10 the foreign priests and professors were given an hour's 
notice to be at the railroad station. The purpose of the short notice was 
to prevent the people of the city from gathering to bid them farewell. 
They were threatened with prison or death if they delayed. Soldiers 
were waiting for them in the station. There also were a number of 
Constitutionalists, secret service members, and a band of music. Like a 
tiger lapping the blood of its victim and roaring with delight over the 
dismembered body, Dieguez ordered the band to play the hymn of 



22 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

Juarez and, after other such pieces, as the train pulled out, ' la Goland- 
rina.' The Catholics and pupils of the exiles who crowded the station, 
having come to bid them an affectionate farewell, wept with grief and 
indignation. The priests also wept to see so many good people in Mexico 
victims of a few bandits. They were somewhat consoled with the hope 
that their own woes would cease when they should arrive among people 
who could better appreciate their science and virtue. But their cares 
were not to cease there. The guard which accompanied them had orders 
to leave them at the end of the road, even though it were in the line of 
fire between Federals and Constitutionalists. When they arrived at 
Colima, Governor Ruiz, who was more humane than Dieguez, knowing 
that the road was not open and that there was no food on the way, and 
that to abandon the exiles there would be to condemn them to death, 
gave orders to keep them all night in the station in the car in which 
they arrived. The following day he took their names, because in Guada 
lajara even this much had not been done. Governor Ruiz informed them 
that they would continue to be prisoners, but he gave them permission to 
live in the city, with the city limits as their prison walls. He allowed 
them to lodge wherever they could, and made them pay their own 
expenses, besides requiring them to report daily at the police head- 
quarters. 

•J- 

" When the Constitutionalists entered Manzanillo, whch was not until 
some days afterward, the big chief Dieguez wanted to send the forty- 
seven foreigners away at once, without giving a thought as to whether 
there was a train, a ship or lodging and food in Manzanillo. August 20 
he gave orders for all to be in the station. It was known there that there 
was no train ; but the passengers were kept in ignorance until midday. 
The governor knew all day there was no train. But he was feasting in a 
neighboring plantation. He said to his military aide, Lepe, that he 
would punish them with one day of Constitutionalist camp life. For 
fifteen hours they waiter for the train and almost suffocated with the 
heat. At night the Governor arrived and ordered the train to start. But 
the English consul, and the German consul who himself was being 
expelled, and the Spanish consul, all pointed out that in Manzanillo there 
was neither food nor ship, and they prevailed on Dieguez to let them 
wait in Colima until some steamship should arrive. 

" Eight days more the exiles waited for a ship. They lived on the 
charity of the good citizens of Colima and especially on the alms of the 
priests of this diocese who, unconscious of themselves, displayed won- 
derful charity. On the twenty-ninth of August came a new order to 
depart, because a ship was soon expected. Since now Carranza had 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 23 

established his government in Mexico and since he had promised the 
United States to respect the persons and property of foreigners, the 
governor was asked that they be allowed to receive orders from Carranza 
or from the foreign ministers in the capital, to the effect that they might 
sail from Vera Cruz, or at least that their passage be paid from Manza- 
nillo. But Governor Ruiz would neither do nor allow anything of the 
kind. He who was living in a house he had stolen, and he who ate and 
slept in another's home, need have little care for unhappy exiles. He said 
that there was a ship at Manzanillo and meantime they would be lodged 
in the hotel recently confiscated from D. Bias Ruiz. But this lodging, 
during the three days they had to stay in Manzanillo, consisted only of 
the choice of the floor for a bed or some rooms which had been wrecked 
in a filthy, abandoned hotel. On the floor below were lodged the troops 
and on that above the officers and some shameless women. The port, 
which had lately been abandoned by several thousand Federals, had 
been cleaned out of all provisions. As a climax to the outrages suffered 
by the priests, they were denied permission in that hot climate even to 
bathe in the sea. To add to their woes and to share them, fifty nuns. 
Ladies of the Sacred Heart, who had been deceived by the promise of a 
ship, were set down without protection in this hell-hole. The only hope 
which the Mexican government offered to the one hundred persons whom 
it had proscribed was to suggest to them the ship Bonita, in which one 
hundred Constitutionalists were to be carried to Mazatlan and in which 
it was said there was scarcely room for eight persons more. And this 
took place while Carranza and Dieguez allowed a shipload of Chinese to 
disembark at Manzanillo. Surely the Chinese were an advantageous 
exchange for so many religious teachers who were being exiled for no 
other crime than that of having consecrated their lives to the welfare 
of the Mexican people; to teach them a religion which forbids robbery 
even under the Constitutionalist name of loot (avance), a religion which 
teaches the people the difference between right and wrong, in order that 
they may not be the playthings of anti-Christian atheists and political 
bandits, a religion which teaches the Mexican people to exercise their 
rights as citizens and to demand for Catholics that religious liberty 
which the so-called Laws of Reform, to the destruction of civilization, 
deny them. Yet these Constitutionalists permit the Mormons, the Chi- 
nese and the Hindus to practice their religion and morality. There is 
plenty of liberty in Mexico for the association of prostitutes, and yet 
not enough liberty to permit three Catholic women to associate for the 
purpose of teaching little girls Mathematics and English. What crime 
have the Constitutionalists found in these latter? None. They them- 
selves are now ashamed of the fable which they invented of a plot and of 



24 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

arms. But we are wrong. They accuse them of having written over the 
doors of their houses ' obscene ' words such as ' Ave Maria Purissima/ of 
having written upon their walls the name of Jesus, of having read in their 
churches the pastoral letters of their bishops. 

" But these Constitutionalists, who have written over the doors of the 
schools the motto of Juarez, ' Respect for the rights of others is peace ' ; 
these men who at the same time open stores to sell their loot, which they 
have stolen from individuals and Catholic schools; these men whose 
only thought is to rob peaceful citizens in order to enrich themselves, 
what do they know or care for the rights of others or for peace? These 
men, who destroy all the schools and force the children to listen to the 
lessons of an ignorant, bloodthirsty and immoral woman, like Atala 
Apodaca and admirers of her, like Valencia and Ortega, what apprecia- 
tion have they of the right of freedom of education which the Constitu- 
tion of Mexico itself guarantees? 

" What crime have the priests committed ; what fault have they been 
guilty of that secret societies and the revolution hate them so? The 
Jesuits had the misfortune to have accredited their schools and colleges 
and to have shown the inferiority and disorder of the government system. 
They have committed the fault of educating the more cultured class of 
society and of having merited the esteem of these because of their faith- 
ful service and modesty in that work. They have committed the fault 
of being taken for rich men and of having received the sons of rich men. 
What matters it that nearly one-fourth of their pupils could not, on 
account of their poverty, pay even one-half of the small tuition which 
was asked ? ' You are immensely rich,' repeated the parrot Dieguez, 
when the Rector of the college went to ask permission to get his clothes. 
An educated person would have tried to find out the truth. The Jesuits 
are not a business concern, which combines its- interests for trade. Their 
constitution requires complete financial independence in all their houses. 
One house can not assist another to any considerable extent. Thus there 
are houses that are rich, and there are colleges that are poor and even 
poverty-stricken. The latter might fail and the Order could not help 
them. Each college and institution must live on its own resources and 
for the benefit of the community in which it is located. The College of 
Guadalajara did not even have its own building. And the scientific 
apparatus and furniture were not paid for, but were owed for to the 
extent of $70,000 which is still due various Mexicans and foreigners. 
This is the wealth which ' was being sent to Europe.' These are the 
millions which they put in their banks. 

" The crimes of the Marist Brothers were of the same kind and their 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 25 

wealth the same. They taught commercial courses and the elementary 
branches better than the atheist teachers, and their pupils finished their 
studies better educated, more industrious and more moral than those of 
their enemies. Secret society fanaticism and Mexican constitutionalism 
could not stand the scientific and moral superiority of the Catholics, and 
they preferred to bury the people in ignorance by leaving them without 
teachers, which they confess they lack, rather than allow ' these pernicious 
foreigners ' to teach them. 



" And what was the crime of the Salesian Fathers ? They occupied a 
large building, still unfinished and unpaid for, where they taught the arts 
and crafts to the children of the common people. They had the very 
best tools and machinery for carpentry, bookbinding, printing, shoe- 
making, and the like. They committed the crime of teaching, practically 
for nothing, trades whereby the sons of the poor workingman would be 
enabled to earn an honest living. These are the things for which they 
were hated by these infamous bandits, who claim to work in behalf of 
the people and yet who have never been able to establish a single school 
of this kind for the people. These pretenders were ashamed to let a 
foreigner inspect their poor imitations of industrial schools. Nor will 
they try to run these machines, which they do not understand, and which 
they have stolen from their legitimate owners. 

" The Fathers of St. John were guilty of even greater crimes : they 
conducted a free hospital and a free insane asylum. It is incredible, 
perhaps, but true, that the religious antipathy of Dieguez and the atheists 
went so far as to condemn such well-known and efficient nurses as the 
Fathers of St. John. Nay, more, they defamed them. Their newspapers 
declared that the Fathers of St. John were holding at their asylum 
persons whom they pretended to be insane for the purpose of getting 
possession of their property. Dieguez even sent his private secretary 
to demand the freedom of an insane man who, he maintained, was 
unlawfully detained. The secretary was not satisfied until he saw the 
man, who was a violent maniac. Another time General Hill took out a 
patient and carried him away with him. But the patient, who was almost 
an idiot, paid no attention to his supposed liberator and at night said he 
wanted to go home. He was let go and he went back by himself to the 
asylum. 

" The proscribed priests and sisters spent three terrible days in Man- 
zanillo. Yet the promised ship did not arrive. Nor was there any hope 
of getting out of that dangerous climate. If they did not leaye there, 



26 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

they would die of starvation, disease or anxiety. They engaged to pay 
$6,500 for passage on the ship Hong Kong and Mexico City, where they 
would have to mix with Chinese and to sleep on miserable bare canvas 
cots in the hold of the ship. But they preferred this to the savage hos- 
pitality of the Constitutionalists. The exiles were able to make up among 
them only half the price for their passage. It became necessary for the 
captain to accept their promise to pay him upon their arrival at San 
Francisco, where American citizens would not fail to give assistance in 
their misfortune to so many foreigners, whose interests the Government 
in Washington had promised to protect. Will the American people allow 
outrages such as these to continue ? Will they not demand from Dieguez 
and the Mexican government an indemnity which will permit us to 
return to our homes and in the meantime to buy food during our exile? 
"We all protest against the unjust spoliation of our property, for which 
we will demand indemnity when a government shall be established. We 
protest against the barbarity with which they have expelled us. We 
protest against the savage manner in which they have driven us out of 
the country for which we have labored so many years. We protest 
against the according to us of such treatment as would not be accorded 
the worst criminals. We protest against the indignity offered our flags 
and our consulates, against the illegality of the verbal decree by which we 
were expelled and against the execution of that decree which was even 
more illegal and cruel. We trust that the American people, who are 
lovers of justice and civilization, will realize that they are in honor 
bound to defend us in the name of science and humanity, to demand 
satisfaction for the flagrant violation of the recommendations which were 
made by them to Carranza and his followers. If this be not done, then 
the declaration of the Carranzistas will be confirmed that, whatever they 
do, is done with the knowledge and approbation of the Washington Gov- 
ernment." 



III. 

NUEVO LEON, ZACATECAS AND SALTILLO. 

The Archbishop of Monterey, Monsignor Plancarte, is one of the 
scholars of Mexico, and one who has devoted his great talents to Mexican 
historical and ethnological research. For forty years he has been at 
work, during which time he has published valuable contributions to the 
history of his native country, notably, " Tamoanchan el Estado de Morelas 
y el Principio de Id Civilizacion en Mexico." A sequel to this work, a 
study of the third period of Mexico's ancient history, entitled: "La 
Invacion Chichimeca en la Valle de Mexico," was in preparation and 
almost finished when the revolutionists reached the city of Monterey in 
the State of Nueva Leon. The archbishop had collected, during his 
forty years of work, at the expense of great labor and sacrifice, a mag- 
nificent library of books and manuscripts, as well as a museum of 
Mexican antiquities which he had himself excavated. This latter collec- 
tion was begun in 1883. When Archbishop Plancarte was at Cuernavaca, 
where he resided before his promotion to Monterey, the Hon. Elihu 
Root, and the foreign geologists who attended the Geological Congress 
of Mexico, came to see this splendid collection. Some of the archbishop's 
archaeological discoveries were outlined to American scientists by Mr. 
Holmes, of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, in an article pub- 
lished in a Philadelphia scientific review. The archbishop had scientific 
correspondence on this subject with the Smithsonian. As Mexico is one 
of the richest, as well as the most interesting fields for archaeological 
research, because of its ancient civilization and absorbing story, the work 
of Archbishop Plancarte was most valuable to scientific men interested in 
the North American continent. This scientist at least might have escaped 
the charge of political meddling. His diocese, his studies and his never- 
ending writings, gave him little thought or interest in anything else. 

But such was not the case. When the Carranzistas entered Monterey, 
it was to commit the same crimes as they had committed in other cities. 
Homes were entered and taken, the archbishop's being among the first. 
Then his effects began to disappear. The most valuable books, it is 
openly said, were taken by Urrieta, a Deputy to Congress, and De la 
Paz Guerra, Government Secretary of the .State of Nuevo Leon, both 
supposed to be men of honor and character. The labor of forty years 
was destroyed. The almost completed manuscript of the archbishop's 
new scientific book went with the rest. No one gained by the destruction 

27 



28 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

of the manuscripts, for they were thrown away as useless. The museum 
was looted and its contents taken by people who knew nothing of their 
value, or who looked upon them as no better than ordinary curios. With 
these went valuable pictures, family heirlooms, personal belongings, etc. 
The archbishop was left without the result of his life's labor, and is 
to-day in exile in San Antonio, with not one single dollar. When I met 
him he was wearing the borrowed cassock of a simple priest. He had 
not saved even his pectoral cross. 

►I* 

When the shepherd was stricken, the sheep could expect no pro- 
tection. Priests were taken publicly to jail; professors were dragged 
with them. The " liberators," who wanted schools, as they said, had the 
same respect for the teacher as they had for the preacher. Later on, the 
foreign priests were freed on the representations of their respective con- 
suls ; but they were at once sent out of the country. 

Then the Carranzistas turned their attention to the churches. The 
confessionals were burned and the temples closed. But this was going 
pretty far, and the people, who however, had no arms, were muttering. 
. So five churches were allowed to open, but only under such restrictions 
as to do away altogether with liberty of conscience. Nero and Diocletian 
had their counterparts in Monterey. 

Then followed a reign of terror for the other towns of the State of 
Nueva Leon. All the school property was seized. Even that belonging 
to individuals was taken. A monument of antiquity, and the finest 
church in the State, St. Francis of Monterey, dating from the sixteenth 
century, was destroyed, and its works of art mutilated. 

There were no priests killed in Monterey, but the faithful laity were 
not so fortunate. Seiior Mandin was shot without cause or crime. The 
nuns were spared from the crowning shame, so far as I can learn, but 
not so the daughters of many respectable and honest families. Zacatecas 
saw five priests killed horribly ; Coahuila lost by shooting the pastor of 
St. Peter's ; Zamora had the awful spectacle of one of her priests found 
killed in a field and his body half-eaten by animals. But for Monterey 
there was only robbery, spoliation, imprisonment, exile, the destruction 
of schools, and the wiping out of scientific records which some would say 
were worth many lives. 

Why did the archbishop leave? He was ordered to go. They 
accused him of receiving a letter from one of Huerta's ministers, begging 
his influence to bring about peace. So even the reception of such a letter 
was considered a crime which merited banishment. 



T-HE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 29 

As to the facts I have here set down, they are all from a resident of 
Nuevo Leon who had every opportunity of knowing the truth. He was 
well acquainted with the archbishop and all the prominent people of the 
State. He gave the facts to me in an interview and afterward set them 
down in writing, offering to have the truth of them attested under oath 
before a notary. Knowing the man's reputation, I replied that this was 
not necessary. So he added to his statement an expression of his 
willingness to swear to the truth of his words at any time. 



One of the most informing statements in my possession, because it 
goes very much into detail, was given by an eye-witness to the treatment 
of the priests of Zacatecas, already touched upon in a general way. 
Because this statement is written so that the printing of it in full would 
immediately expose the name of the person who gave it, I rewrite and 
summarize, using the facts as they were sworn to. 

At ten o'clock on the morning of June 25 the staff-officers of General 
Villa summoned all the priests of Zacatecas to appear at the headquarters. 
The priests obeyed, and arrived very soon at the house of Dr. De la 
Torre, where Villa had taken up his residence. Colonel Beytia, chief of 
Villa's staff, ordered the Vicar-General to send for the priests who had 
not yet arrived. One of the officers was appointed to accompany the 
priests appointed by the Vicar-General, the Colonel saying to him : " If 
this officer does not come back, you will answer with your head." 

At noon twenty-three priests were present, and the Colonel made the 
following statement : " General Villa asks a million pesos from you. If 
this sum is not turned in by to-morrow morning, all of you will be shot." 
The priests answered that it was an impossible request, and they prepared 
themselves to die. 

At twelve o'clock that night the Vicar-General and another priest 
were taken to the guardhouse by Major Villareal, who said: "You are 
going to be shot, because you will not give the money." The priest said 
that they had until ten o'clock in the morning, but the Major answered : 
" I know nothing about that. I know only the orders I have received." 
The Major gave the Vicar-General permission, however, to return to the 
other priests, that he might delegate some one to act as Vicar-General 
after his death. This done, he returned to the guardhouse. Five mounted 
soldiers took the two priests in charge and brought them to a hill near 
the railroad station. They were separated at a ditch and money demanded 
of each one in turn. The priests said again that they possessed nothing. 
One said that he had his family home and offered to give them that. 
He said that he had no right to take money which did not belong to him, 



30 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

meaning whatever diocesan funds he held. The question was then asked: 
" What kind of a death do you prefer ; to be hanged or shot ? " The 
priests selected shooting. The officer in charge then said to one of the 
feoldiers : " Give me your rifle. How many bullets are in it ? " The 
soldier answered : " Two." " Well," said the officer, " I think two are 
enough." Bitterly, one of the priests said : " I think so, too." " Why," 
asked the officer of another priest, " do you allow yourself to be shot 
instead of handing over the money? " The priest answered: " I possess 
nothing but a few old books. Take them, but let it be known that I am 
killed on account of my poverty." 

The officer then took them back to the guardhouse, where they slept 
on the bare floor. The same night Major Villareal informed the other 
priests that the Vicar-General was to be shot unless they raised the money 
required. The next morning the good people of the city sent food. At 
eight o'clock the priests were sent out to see if the money could be col- 
lected. They came back at four with ten thousand pesos. Villareal 
ordered them to secure at least twenty thousand, or he would shoot four, 
beginning with the Superior. The priests were sent out again on June 27, 
and collected the required sum of twenty thousand pesos, the people 
giving the money to save the priests. When this money was paid over, 
Colone L3 evtia demanded one hundred thousand pesos. If the money 
was not forthcoming, eight would be killed. He said that the graves 
had already been dug on the hills. He gave the priests paper and told 
them to make their wills. The priests went out again, but could get 
nothing, for the rich families had gone away. The officer said : " Go out 
again and beg from door to door." Again the priests went out and 
begged. It was pitiful, for even the little children gave them their 
pennies. This was on Friday. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday they 
were driven out again under guard. On Sunday no devotions were 
allowed in the churches. On Tuesday, at four in the morning, the priests 
were awakened by the cries and laments of a girl in the adjoining room 
occupied by the Colonel. The reason can be guessed. The girl was kept 
in the house two days. At eight o'clock that morning the priests returned 
with a hundred thousand pesos that had been given by the people to save 
them from death. The money was handed over to Major Alvarez and 
Major Villareal. Thursday morning the priests were still prisoners and 
Major Alvarez said that four thousand four hundred and fifty pesos 
of the one hundred thousand were lacking. When the money was paid 
over, there was nothing lacking. When they counted the money, two 
thousand and sixty-six pesos were gone. The priests had to go out and 
beg again. They asked, for a receipt and the permission to leave and go 
about their duties. At eight o'clock that night the priests were ordered 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 31 

to the railroad station to be given their freedom. They gathered up their 
little belongings, but Major Villareal ordered them to leave everything 
behind, as they would be back in a few minutes. Six officers brought 
them to the station. One showed them a railroad coach and said : " Get 
in here, because General Villa wants to see you in Torreon." On the 
night of July 4, on the train, the officers were drunk and insulted the 
priests in vile language. On the fifth they reached Torreon and were 
turned over to a guard. In the guardhouse they slept on an earthen floor 
full of vermin. There were twenty priests, all Mexicans except one. 
The room in which these twenty were confined was about sixteen feet 
square. In the middle of the night they were awakened by women who 
had to pass through the room to reach the officers' quarters in the adjoin- 
ing room. They received no food from the officers, but the people of 
Torreon gave them food and clothing. They were kept prisoners until 
Friday. On that day they were loaded into a railroad coach, where they 
met four Christian Brothers (teachers). There should have been six, 
but two had been killed brutally at Zacatecas, together with the Chaplain 
of the Brothers, Father Vega. This killing was done by General Urbina. 
On Saturday, the train reached Juarez and the priests were sent across 
the international bridge into the United States. No charge was made 
against these priests for violating the laws or helping the cause of Huerta. 
There was no trial ; no hearing of the priests' side of the case. The only 
possible charge that could have been made was that one of the priests, 
a canon, went to console the dying soldiers at the hospital, when he saw 
them lying on the bare floor without medical care and attention. Moved 
by their deplorable condition, he collected some money from the clergy 
and gave it to the Governor of Zacatecas to help the wounded. That was 
all the money they gave to the Federals. 



An interesting sidelight on this story comes from the town of Jalpa. 
After the fall of Zacatecas, several Federal soldiers went to Jalpa. The 
parish priest remained there. The town occupied an advantageous posi- 
tion between two mountains and was very difficult to approach. 
Knowing what had occurred at other places, the parish priest told his par- 
ishioners that they had a right to defend their lives and property, and 
the honor of their wives and daughters. The people took up arms and 
defended themselves. The priest is accused of being a Huertista. Stories 
will probably be circulated, because of his action, that the priest opposed 
the government. 

It is also interesting to note, since the Constitutionalists claim that the 
rural priests are good and that they are in favor of them, that Father Alba 



32 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

in the little town of Galera, near Zacatecas, was killed. Reports say that 
it was by the order of Gen. Eulalio Gutierrez. Is this the Eulalio 
Gutierrez selected by the Constitutionalist Convention for President of 
' Mexico? 

Zacatecas was attacked twice. During the first attack, the Constitu- 
tionalists took a little village about three miles from the city, Guadalupe. 
The parish priest was attending eight or ten wounded soldiers in his 
house. The Constitutionalists took the soldiers out and shot them in 
the yard, and then rode over their dead bodies on -horseback, crushing 
them horribly. 

Another statement, sworn to before a notary, is of no less interest, 
because of the details it gives. While I have the sworn statement itself, I 
have also had the story verified personally by one of the priests who was 
tortured. He is a Spanish Benedictine Father, now located at the Bene- 
dictine Abbey at Covington, Louisiana. His own story was published in 
The Morning Star, of New Orleans, but this I take from the sworn state- 
ments mentioned. 

"There were nine Jesuit Fathers in a college at Saltillo, with four 
scholastics and nine lay Brothers. Three priests were Spanish, one 
French and the rest Mexicans. The college had a total enrollment of 
ninety-six students. When Torreon fell the foreign priests were sent 
away. On the 21st of May, 1914, the Federals withdrew, pillaging the 
town before leaving, exacting taxes and taking the horses. That same 
afternoon, at two o'clock, the Constitutionalists came in and killed the 
remaining Federals. The Constitutionalists came to the college and took 
possession on the 21st. Villa came to Saltillo the next day at nine o'clock. 
The Fathers were summoned to headquarters at three o'clock. Six 
Jesuit Fathers, three Eudists, a Benedictine, and a number of Diocesan 
priests were ushered into Villa's presence, who began abusing them and 
asked how many Spaniards there were among them. The Benedictine 
Father informed Villa that he was a Spaniard. He then ordered the 
priests to give him a million pesos in coin. They had no money and 
three were sent out to beg. Colonel Fierro was sent as a guard. At the 
college they had three thousand and eighty pesos. They gave Villa that. 
He was not satisfied. Colonel Fierro was informed that the families 
who were able to help them were out of town. The priests told him that 
there was nothing to do but beg from door to door. This, however, he 
would not permit. Villa said : ' It is necessary to put you to the guillo- 
tine and to execute all of the Fathers, and I am the only man to do li.' 
When Villa was speaking, he kept cracking nuts with his teeth and using 
vile language. He kept the priests prisoners that night in his house. 
Some P'athers by this time had collected thirteen thousand pesos, yilla 
let the secular priests go, but kept the others. That night two priests 
became ill. One of them got permission to go to the English consulate ; 
the other, who was a Jesuit, was not allowed to go out. Villa himself 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 33 

said : * Take away that shameless man from here. Put him in a separate 
room and shoot him in order to cure him.' The priest was in a high fever 
that night. The sick priest heard Villa say : ' Take this big goat out and 
shoot him.' He was carried out on a mattress into another room and left 
alone. In the afternoon Villa came into the room. ' What is the matter 
with you ? ' he asked. ' I am sick with fever,' replied the priest. Villa 
replied : ' I will send you out to be shot.' All of Sunday night and 
Monday, the priest was left there sick. At midnight on Monday, he was 
ordered to get up and follow a soldier. Again he was put with the other 
priests. In the meantime, at the same hour. Colonel Fierro summoned 
the other priests, and with a naked sword in his hand ordered them to 
follow him. As they passed through the hallway, they met several sol- 
diers, who were commanded to load their rifles. The priests were lined 
up, two by two, and taken to an adjoining house which was empty. They 
were then shown into a large room, illuminated by candles. An officer 
told them that they had been sentenced to death, and then turning to the 
other soldiers, he said : ' Whom shall we begin with ? ' The priests 
quietly gave one another absolution, and a Jesuit volunteered to be the 
first. He was taken away and the others left under guard. After a 
short time, the priests heard a shot and the noise of a body being 
dragged out. Colonel Fierro and the soldiers returned. One had a 
horse-hair rope in his hands. He approached another priest and said: 
' Your time has come.' The priest himself put the noose around his 
neck. He was taken to the large room and commanded to reveal the 
place where the treasures were hidden. The priest answered that he 
could do no more. The rope was tightened around his neck, and he was 
choked until he became unconscious and fell to the floor. He recovered 
consciousness, however, and one of the soldiers drew a revolver and fired 
a shot. The same soldier ordered him to stand up, and the priest was 
again asked for treasures. He answered in the same way and was tor- 
tured as before. Again the priest came to his senses and was once more 
choked into unconsciousness. He was then taken to another room, 
where he found the other Fathers. Later, two others came in and 
told them what had happened to them. They heard the groans and chok- 
ings later of the sick father." 

►^ 

The sick man had the same experiences as the others. They were 
taken back to Villa's house, and on the way the soldiers who had mal- 
treated them asked forgiveness, saying that they had to obey superior 
orders. 

" Colonel Fierro, with an escort of soldiers, took the priests to the 
railroad station. The people had gathered around to show sympathy, but 
the Colonel shouted : ' Those who show any sympathy for these men 
must go with them.' They were placed in a freight car under guard. 
One of the officers was drunk. When the train was about to leave 
Saltillo, a girl fifteen years of age came with blankets for the priests. 
Villa ordered this girl to be thrown into the car with them, so as to make 
people think that she was one of their party, but she broke away and 
escaped. During the journey the drunken Colonel kept threatening to 



34 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

kill the priests. Once he pointed his revolver at the Superior of the 
Eudists, but a soldier knocked up his arm and the shot went wild. At 
Paredon, a prostitute was put into the car. They came to a place where 
the track was torn up, and horses had to be had for six miles. When 
asking for the horses, it was announced to the people that ten horses 
were needed for the priests and one for the prostitute, who was their 
traveling companion. When they reached the railroad again, they were 
put into a cattle car without food. During the night the prostitute 
remained with the officer in charge. At Torreon the priests were kept 
prisoners. At the barracks they were given food. In the morning they 
were sent to Chihuahua under the guard of Beytia, General Villa's chief 
of staff, who was drunk and kept threatening death to a sick priest and 
to an old one. They had no food all day. They passed the night at 
Chihuahua on the bare floors. On Sunday they were given a meal and 
on Sunday night taken to the station again. The following morning they 
were sent to Juarez and expelled from the Mexican territory. There was 
no medical attention given them until they arrived at El Paso, where 
Dr. Paul Gallagher and Dr. Carpenter treated their throats. They had 
never contributed one dollar to Huerta. No crime was charged against 
them." 



IV. 

The Persecution of the Sisters. 

Sincerely do I wish that this chapter could be left out of my record. 
I never approached a task with more reluctance of soul than the one 
which faces me now. It is abhorrent to even think that men could be so 
low and bestial as to touch, with unholy hands, the pure women who 
have dedicated their lives to God and- to God's poor; and who have 
consecrated their white souls to the virginity made forever blessed by the 
Virgin Mother of our Redeemer. But the story must be told, and, since 
it must, let a Sister from Mexico who saw with her own eyes the conse- 
quences of the unbridled lust let loose by the revolutionists, tell it in her 
own way. Her statement was sworn to in the most solemn manner before 
an American archbishop, and in my presence. Signatures are attested 
by an ecclesiastical notary under the official seal of the diocese. I use 
nearly all of the document. What follows is translated from the original 
Spanish : 

" The sad and lamentable situation of our Mexican Republic compels 
me to state under oath the conditions which exist in Mexico as a result 
of the diabolical persecution of the Catholic Church. 

" Our temples are closed and our churches profaned. On our altars 
the Holy Sacrifice is no longer offered. Our confessionals have been 
burned in the public squares and there is hardly one that dares to approach 
the Sacrament of Penance, even in the most remote corner of a home. 
The Immaculate Lamb no longer comes to aid our souls, and the priest 
who dares offer the Holy Sacrifice is sentenced to death. Homes are 
desolated, mothers cry over the death of their sons, husbands are torn 
from their families for service with the troops, while their children weep 
at bidding their father the last farewell. Our priests are persecuted. 
They wander along the road without anything to eat. Prelates have been 
forced to abandon us and it seems that God Himself has hidden. Church 
bells no longer ring. The blood of our brothers runs in the streets. Nuns 
are taken to the barracks and their virginity attacked. 

" It appears as if hell had unchained itself and devils had taken pos- 
session of men to harm their brothers. Anarchy and revenge have seized 
their hearts, and the rich are left in the worst misery. 

" Since Don Francisco Madero, in 1910, declared war against Don 
Porfirio Diaz to this date, we have not had a moment of peace, and fol- 
lowing Madero's example, many others have arisen in arms to attack the 
Catholic Church on all sides — some worse than others — so that there is 
not one single State in the Republic that has not been a victim of horrible 
outrages. 

35 



36 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

" The revolutionists have closed the temples and prohibited the Sacra- 
ments to the degree that any priest daring to hear confession or offer the 
Holy Sacrifice is shot. Confessionals and some of the statues of the 
Saints have been burned in the public squares, accompanied by music 
and improper speeches. The churches have been so profaned that some 
of the revolutionists have entered them on horseback. Statues were 
demolished and relics trampled on. Over the floor the Holy Hosts have 
been scattered, and in some instances have been fed to the horses. 

" In some churches the Carranzistas have impersonated priests, saying 
Mass, and have occupied the confessionals, hearing confessions and dis- 
closing what has been told to them. (All of this I have seen with my 
own eyes.) 

, " The most beautiful of the temples in the Republic, the Church of 
San Antonio, at Aguascalientes, has been converted into the Legislative 
Hall. The Church of San Jose, in Queretaro, is now the public library. 
The wonderful convent of the Discalced Carmelites, also in Queretaro, 
has been seized, and the Brothers of the Christian Doctrine, who owned a 
handsome Lyceum, the approximate total value of which was over 
$500,000, lost more than $50,000 spent in repairing it. The colleges of the 
Lazarist Fathers, Jesuits, and many others have perished. The property 
of the Church has been appropriated and many of the ecclesiastical 
archives have been burned. The orders of nuns have been expelled from 
the Republic, giving them only a half hour's time to leave, and without 
allowing them to take the least piece of wearing apparel. Many religious 
have been taken to the barracks and the prison, where their chastity has 
been in grave danger. From the Catholic schools the furniture has been 
stolen. Immorality has extended to such a degree that not only virginity 
has been violated, but nuns have been taken away by force and are being 
subjected to the most horrible suffering. 

" In Mexico City I have seen with the utmost regret many religious 
who have been victims of the unbridled passions of the soldiers. Many I 
found bemoaning their misfortune, being about to become mothers, some 
in their own homes and others in maternity hospitals. Others have 
allowed themselves to be carried away by their misfortune and have given 
up all, filled with desperation and shame. They complain against God, 
saying that they have been abandoned by Him. 

" Religious of various orders have so dressed themselves, and so go 
about, as to hide the fact that they are nuns, for fear that the revolu- 
tionists may carry them away. Some priests worthy of full credit, have 

told me that, in a hospital located in , there are fifty religious that 

were taken away by the soldiers, out of which forty-five are about to 
become mothers, notwithstanding the fact that they have religious. voca- 
tions and were bound by vows. 

" In the , in Mexico City, are others in this same condition and 

others also in the hospital of . In Celaya and Mexico City I have 

seen many others that were obliged to join the Red Cross, and under this 
pretext were held as slaves, treated by the soldiers as though they were 
their own women and not giving any attention to the sick. In a great 
many cases young women, after having been compelled to lead this life, 
were thrown out into the street, some being killed as though they were 
animals. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 37 

" As to the clergy ! What have the ministers of God not suffered ? 

Fathers and (at present in the United States) can tell. 

They were under sentence of death only because they directed Catholic 
labor societies. Many have been shot, and those having any property 
have been exiled and their property seized. In Guadalajara the clergy in 
its entirety was exiled, having been compelled to leave in box and cattle 
cars, their departure being accompanied by a band playing burlesque 
music amidst mockery and hooting. Eight days later the religious were 
compelled to leave and, thank God, women were brave enough to arm 
themselves with stones to use if music was played upon their leaving. 

" The clergy in Torreon and Zacatecas were offered for ransom, and 
after obtaining $100,000, were compelled to pave the streets. Many were 
forced to enlist with the army, while others were shot. Lastly, they were 
exiled without being allowed to take any clothing or money. 

" The clergy in Queretaro were imprisoned and exceedingly heavy 
fines imposed upon them and were later exiled. 

" Many Fathers have been in the penitentiary in Mexico City, while 
others are at present used as servants. When they are discharged they 
must go without clothing — many of them being obliged to dress as 
women in order to leave. In some towns they have been locked up 
together with bad women and threatened with death if they resisted. 

" I have seen used as saddle blankets and ornaments on the horses, 
the chasubles, stoles, maniples, girdles, pluvial capes and altar linen ; 
while women wore the copes, and the corporals were used as handker- 
chiefs. The holy vases have been profaned in sundry ways. After 
drinking from them, the soldiers used them as night vessels, which they 
afterwards threw into the street. In some towns the chalice has been 
burned and the Hosts scattered on the floor. Soldiers have sacrilegiously 
eaten them and, as before said, they have also been fed to the horses. 
Statues were used as targets until they fell to the floor. I have seen 
wagonloads of statues that were on their way to be burned ; some I was^ 
fortunate enough to save, by daring to address the chief, telling him that 
I would rather be burned before the statue of my Holy Mother. The best 
sculptures have been taken away to the museums. The Del Carmen 
Church, in Queretaro, was to have been transformed into a dance hall, but 
I do not know whether the intended work has been completed. In other 
churches the images of Christ have also been shot at. 

" On the road from to Mexico City I found seven religious 

who asked to be directed to a maternity hospital, claiming not to be 
religious, but the fact that they were religious was very evident from 
their manner of speaking. They related to me how they were able to 
escape from the mountains where the revolutionists had held them. I 
tried to console them, but it was useless. They said that they were 
already condemned and abandoned by God, and were in such a despairing 
condition that they cursed the hour of their profession. 

" All these horrible things have compelled me to come to as a 

refugee, bringing with me seven religious, of whom I was Prioress, in 
order to bring them to safety and away from the personal persecution 
that some were subjected to. It is a fact that they were being searched 
for by means of photographs, and when found would have been taken 
away and killed if they resisted. 



38 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

" Our comraunity, the , was located in the city of — , 

where I left on July 9 for , in the hopes of making a new home, 

bringing with me ten postulants and other religious, to get away from 

the danger which threatened them in . I left there other 

religious awaiting the results of my new foundation in , who were 

to join me later. Only with great difficulty was I able to keep them 
together and alive, as their families had lost all their property; conse- 
quently their dowries were gone and I had not even a single cent. On 
the 27th of July all the Orders were expelled from , including our- 
selves, and we were given twenty-four hours' time to leave the country. 

" Not having any means, I presented myself to the local military 

chief, , begging him to intercede in our favor with Governor 

, so that we might be allowed two or three months to look for 

funds with which to leave the country. This gentleman told me that he 
was a Catholic, and advised me to leave the Republic as soon as possible 
if we did not want to suffer the same outrages that many others went 
through in other places. He offered me all kinds of guarantees and told 
me how to save my nuns from the many dangers that threatened them. 

" To this gentleman I also came after having scaled the walls of the 
Church of — in order to save four sculptures and other altar orna- 
ments. In this case I was incurring a fault which was subject to the 
death penalty as punishment. Not only was I forgiven for this, but he 
gave me a safe conduct to avoid being molested by any one. I take the 
liberty of recommending him as a good man. I am very grateful to him. 

" On the 28th of August, I returned to to bring the other 

religious that remained there, in order that we might leave the Republic 

together. Our religious were badly persecuted in and had to be 

divided and placed in private homes to avoid their being taken to the 
barracks. 

" I returned to with my nuns, and on the road I met several 

spies who injured us greatly. In a rented house we only had three 
rooms for twenty-four religious and novices, and each day I had to go 
out in search for bread to eat. They were deprived of hearing Mass and 
receiving Communion. God only knows what I suffered to liberate them 
from danger and obtain food. 

" For twenty-two days I was scarcely able to sleep, fearing that at 
any moment the house would be attacked and the nuns stolen. They 
were obliged to sleep on the floor of one room after offering to God the 
sacrifices of the day. 

" Some days I was obliged to change houses as often as three times, 
since our hiding-places had been discovered, which fact the officer (my 
friend) would tell me. The spies denounced us again. I was compelled 

to leave with seven for the , and beg of foreign prelates that they 

permit me to make a new home, where I could safely place the other 
religious that I had under my charge, and who are at present hiding in 
the city of , Mexico. 

" I leave to God the fulfillment of His holy will and, in the meantime, 
pray Him to remedy the troubles of the Mexican Republic and preserve 
the President of the United States of America, so that he may stop the 
numerous calamities that have fallen upon the Mexican Church." 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 39 

Names of persons and places which might identify the Sister Superior 
who wrote the above statement, or her friends, have been eliminated for 
reasons already given ; but, in this case especially, because some of the 
Sisters have not yet escaped, and the devoted Superior, supplied with the 
necessary money by The Catholic Church Extension Society, has returned 
to Mexico to find them and bring them to a place of safety. 

No further comment on this sworn statement is necessary. 

If any doubt remains as to the certainty of these abominable out- 
rages, the following, which is a sworn statement before a notary, by one 
of the most prominent parish priests of Mexico City, ought to put it 
to rest : " The stories regarding outrages against Sisters are so common 
in the City of Mexico that they are believed by all. I have never heard a 
denial even by those whose interest it would be to disprove them. The 
common information is to the effect that many Sisters are pregnant, and 
others suffering from loathsome diseases, because of assaults upon them 
by revolutionary soldiers." 

Another sworn statement, for the publication of which full permis- 
sion was given by the person making it, testifies to the same effect. The 
part of the statement which concerns the outrages is as follows : 

" I have it on the authority of Dr. (no permission to publish 

this name, as the doctor is still in Mexico), physician in the street called 

in , Mexico, that in his own private house there were 

seventeen Sisters who had been outraged by revolutionists, and were in 
a pregnant condition. I also know that other Sisters in the same condition 

were in the Asylum of Mexico City." 

(Signed) N. Corona. 
" State of Texas, 
" County of Galveston. 

Sworn to and subscribed before me on this 24th day of October, 1914. 

(Signed) H. Rebaud, 
[seal] Notary Public for Galveston County, Texas. 

"^ 
On the same day the following sworn statement was given me : 

" I know that one month ago, to my certain knowledge. Sisters out- 
raged by revolutionists and in a pregnant condition were in the 

Asylum of Mexico City. This house is in charge of Miss 



(Street ) . The stories of the outrages on Sisters are so 

commonly spoken of in Mexico City as to vanquish all thought of their 
not having occurred. Naturally, the names of the Sisters, and the 
houses they are in, were kept as secret as possible, in view of the future 
of the poor, unfortunate victims themselves. 



Superior of Church. 

State of Texas, I 

County of Galveston. | 



40 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 24th day of October, 1914. 

(Signed) H. Rebaud, 
[seal] ' Notary Public for Galveston County, Texas. 



The next statement is signed by the Superior-General of one of the 
large teaching orders of Mexico. The good reputation and high character 
of the Superior-General is attested by two archbishops, who in witness 
thereto have signed the original document, which is in my possession : 

" Having been requested to inform you of my knowledge regarding 
the outrages suffered by the religious in Mexico at the hands of the 
revolutionists, I can truthfully give the following information: 

" ' While the Mother Superior of of Sisters of , 

was in Mexico during the month of June last, and having heard that 
there had arrived a number of religious that had been outraged, filled 
with indignation and pain, she asked permission of the Mother- 
General to investigate the whereabouts of these religious, in the hope of 
offering them refuge and taking care of them, if it were possible. Her 

first efforts were directed to the Hospital, where it was stated 

these religious would be found. Upon calling there, she was informed 
of the veracity of these charges, but was advised that the nuns had 

already been transferred to the religious' house of . Finding that 

they were already being taken care of, she made no further inquiries in 
this direction, in view of the fact that it was very painful and mortifying 
to all.' 



The following is an extract from a letter dated, " Mexico City, Octo- 
ber 25, 1914." Original is in the hands of a gentleman in San Antonio, 
Texas : 

" Concerning the subject you speak of in your letter (the outrages), I 
can tell you that, only three months ago, a lady asked me to receive in my 
sanitarium three nuns from Durango who were in the said condition." 



Here is a translation from the columns of El Presente, a Mexican 
paper published in the Spanish language at San Antonio, Texas. The 
date of the issue from which the article is taken is November 7, 1914. 

" But let us not mislead ourselves. We said that the revolution com- 
pletely ignored the manly virtue of respect towards women, and the irre- 
futable evidence is at hand. Even if some of our readers who are not 
accustomed to read in print of certain criminal deeds, it is necessary to 
state that the Constitutionalist horde not only devoted themselves to 
stealing, murdering and incendiarism, but, worst of all, are the violators 
of unfortunate women and are guilty of all kinds of wrongs and indig- 
nities. In every city, in every town, and in every country place, they 
have left the ravages of their visit. While we could specifically give 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 41 

names, places and dates, we will not do so for fear of being considered 
chroniclers of dishonor and lost virginity. 

" Yet there is still more. The Mexican revolutionists have committed 
the greatest crime that could be committed, the one that can hardly be 
conceived by any civilized people of the present day. We refer to the 
infamous and monstrous outrages upon the nuns in Mexico." 



The refinement of deviltry could scarcely surpass what the following 
from signed statement of a Vicar-General, the original of which is in my 
possession, narrates : , 

"A priest of the same diocese ( — ■. ) was locked in a room with 

a woman of evil repute. Then they (the revolutionists) calumniated him, 
and gave him a mock trial before a " Council of War," and sentenced him 
to be burned to death. They did not carry this sentence out, but the 
priest became mad. He lost his reason for three days. Then they 
brought him to and let him go free." 

Why did they not finish their work? A ruined reputation is not pre- 
ferable to a martyr's crown. 

This letter comes from Toluca. I have the original, which was 
written by the daughter of a respectable family of that city, a lady who 
had devoted herself to charitable works. It was addressed to her pastor, 
who was then and still is in exile in the United States : 

" I am going to ask you a question. If one should fall into the hands 

of (revolutionists), would it not be preferable to end one's life 

than to suffer their usual outrages ? I did not think that this would ever 
come, and therefore never made this inquiry before, but the situation 
seems very probable now. Had we not full confidence in our good God, 
I believe we would perish. What we expected did not happen, but what 
we never imagined took place. There is a feeling of pain, fear, indigna- 
tion and shame in the face of so many horrible things." 

Should she commit suicide rather than suffer what others suffered? 
God of Heaven ! and this is the twentieth century of the Christian dis- 
pensation, but Christians remain unmoved. 



To these I add a sworn statement, already published in America, 
addressed to the Hon. William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State, and 
which is, therefore, to be found in the archives of the State Department 
at Washington : 

(COPY) 

Washington, D. C, October 8, 1914. 

To His Excellency, The Hon. W. J. Bryan, Secretary of State: 

Sir, — On July 22 last I had the honor of addressing your Excellency 



42 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

on the subject of the persecution of the Catholics in Mexico as prac- 
ticed by the revolutionary parties now in power in that country. 

The Third Assistant Secretary of State, under date of July 24, 
acknowledged receipt of my letter. 

Since then I have made the acquaintance of the Rev. R. H. Tierney, 
editor of the Catholic paper America, published in New York City, who 
writes me that he visited you concerning this subject, and that your 
Excellency wished to hear me on the same matter. I have thought it 
well, therefore, to note down for your convenience the principal points, 
and I wish to say that I have written down nothing of which I am not 
fully aware and can vouch for personally. I have lived in Mexico twenty- 
three years, am a German by birth, by religion a Lutheran, and am sixty 
years of age. 

I know of Catholic clergymen, who under pain of death were forced 
to sweep the streets of a city and do menial work for common, illiterate 
soldiers. 

Of a bishop, seventy years old, deported to the penal colony on the 
Pacific Coast. 

Of several priests in the Monterey penitentiary as late as August 30, 
last. 

Of a parish priest, eighty years old, so tortured that he lost his reason. 

Of many deported to Texas, both Mexicans and foreigners. 

Of priests and sisters tortured by hanging and strangling. 

Of a priest in hiding who was enticed out to confess a person and 
instead was thrown into a dungeon. 

Of forty Sisters of Charity who have been violated, of which number 
four are known to me, and one of these has become demented. 

I have been instrumental in saving six Sisters and seven girl pupils 
from the same fate. 

Of an Englishman who tried to save the personal effects of these thir- 
teen women, being fined $2,000 for the attempt. 

Of all the confessionals of the Monterey district churches being piled 
in a public square and burned. 

Of valuable paintings stolen from churches and supposedly brought 
to the United States by filibusters. 

Of Constitutionalist soldiers, led by a man who is now Governor of a 
State in Mexico, doing on the altar what decency does not permit me to 
say. 

Of doing the same at another church, into the chalice, and making the 
priest drink of it. 

Of decrees published by those now Governors of States, prohibiting 
the practice of religion, and closing the churches, convents and schools. 
I am respectfully your humble servant, 

(Signed) Martin Stecker. 

117 B Street S. E. 
District of Columbia: 

Martin Stecker, being first duly sworn, deposes and says that the fore- 
going is a true copy of a letter sent by him to the Hon. Wm. J. Bryan, 
and that the same is in all substantial particulars a true statement of facts. 

Martin Stecker. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW ' 43 

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 28th day of October, 1914. 

Charles M. Birckhead, 

Notary Public, D. C. 

Decency refuses permission to chronicle more. Even as these state- 
ments stand I have hesitated about printing all of them, but if the story 
is to be told it must be told as it is. Whatever good is to come out of it 
for the poor refugees, and the almost destroyed church in Mexico, will 
come only when a fair-minded and just people have the truth. 

How do you like it? Put your own religious teachers and pastors in 
the same place and judge. 



YUCATAN. 

The case of Yucatan is one of the saddest in the history of the Mex- 
ican persecutions. Not because the people and the Church were treated 
more severely than in other places, but because Yucatan had not been in 
rebellion at all, and had kept the peace. The citizens of the State simply 
accepted conditions as they were. The people of Yucatan are a very quiet 
and industrious people. They ask for nothing better than such quiet and 
industry. Stories published some years ago by an American magazine 
concerning " barbarities " in Yucatan were bitterly resented by the people. 
No section of Mexico has had more prosperity, considering everything, 
than the State of Yucatan. The fact that the people did not take up arms 
is perhaps one of the most eloquent testimonies that could be given as to 
the satisfactory condition of the State. 

The great industry of Yucatan is the growing of hemp. The country 
could, if the people so desired, grow a great many other things, but the 
hemp industry is very profitable. Most of it is sold in the United States 
or through American merchants. The port of the state is called Pro- 
gresso. It is the Mexican terminus of the Ward Line steamers from 
New York. The city of Merida, the capital, as well as the state, is rich 
in antiquities connected with the history of Mexico. Excavations have 
been made which have resulted in rich archaeological treasures. One of 
the greatest archaeologists was the former Archbishop of Merida, a native 
Mexican, by birth of Indian blood. He was one of Mexico's most 
learned men and did in the South what Archbishop Plancarte was doing 
in the North. He had published valuable works which attracted the atten- 
tion of scientists everywhere. The present Archbishop of Yucatan is a 
native Mexican of German descent, a man of very great ability and a wise 
administrator. He has made a decided mark on the Church in his diocese, 
and is loved and revered by his people. 



Although Yucatan was, as I already said, peaceful and industrious, 
and although it was taken over by the revolutionists without fighting, 
nevertheless the first effort made was to bleed the people. As soon as the 
Constitutionalist Governor Avila took command, a " loan " of $8,000,000 
was imposed upon the hemp growers. The decree calling for this robbery 
was printed in La Revista de Yucatan on September 29, 1914. The decree 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 45 

gives, as a reason for the impost, that the northern section of Mexico 
suffered great dangers ; that its fields were made barren and its cattle 
destroyed, so as to make it impossible to contribute in a financial way 
" to the complete reestablishment of order." The decree goes on to 
say that " the State of Yucatan has been the only one not suffering the 
consequences of a civil war, and able to preserve all its fountains of 
wealth, which are in full production." The impost of $8,000,000 was made 
on all the inhabitants of the State who have a capital of $100,000 or more. 
The " loan " was compulsory and individuals subject to it were obliged 
to pay within five days. 

Before issuing this decree, and also before the expulsion of the clergy 
and the closing of the churches,' the Constitutionalists took good care to 
disarm the people. Not a gun was left in Yucatan. Resistance was im- 
possible. This was only following the plans already put into force in 
other states. The Constitutionalists imposed their will in the name of 
the people, whether the people wanted it or not. Robbery under these 
circumstances is easy. One can not object too strenuously when the 
robber has a gun and the victim is weaponless. 

The condition of the hemp growers was, however, not so favorable 
as the decree intimated. It was not easy for them to raise $8,000,000 in 
five days, with the consequences of war in other states and in Europe 
upon the country. They complained very bitterly, mentioning their busi- 
ness debts. If they could not pay these, they would be ruined. The 
paying of the Constitutionalist impost meant paralyzing the industries of 
Yucatan. 

But there is a side light also to be thrown upon the difficulty — 
currency. While Yucatan had more coin than perhaps any other section 
of Mexico, yet the coin had constantly been withdrawn from circulation. 
The people were hoarding it, because they knew very well that every 
effort was being made by the revolutionists to get all the coin of the 
country -into their hands. Instead of coin the revolutionists had issued 
paper money. The paper money of Carranza and Villa was practically 
worthless, and even the paper issued by the Mexican banks was, while I 
was in Texas, valued only at about 16 cents on the dollar. Americans 
bought it at 16 cents to pay their bills in Mexico where it had to be 
taken at face value. Mexican producers were, therefore, being paid at 
the rate of 16 cents on the dollar for what they were exporting. To 
make matters worse, the Constitutionalists issued a decree obliging all 
people having coin or bank notes, to put them in circulation, or be pun- 
ished severely. It will be remembered that more than one Mexican 
" patriot " decamped with considerable money. He always took his money 



46 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

out in coin or transferred it to Europe. There is a good reason why 
the present " patriots " should force the Mexican people to put their coin 
in circulation and accept paper instead. The effect on the currency and 
on business of such a move can easily be imagined. The position of the 
planters of Yucatan was an unenviable one. 

However, the Governor was willing to relieve the situation as far as 
he could, but not to the extent of giving up the " loan." He relieved it by 
declaring that for six months the planters should not be obliged to pay 
any other debts. He intended putting on another " loan " of from 
$3,000,000 to $4,000,000 and hitting the smaller planters with it; so it 
was declared in another decree that no one in Yucatan should be obliged 
to pay his business debts for a period of six months. There was then no 
excuse for the planters. The Constitutionalist government was their 
only debtor — for six months ; but after that time they would have to 
pay the other debts in the face of hard times and a debased currency. 
There was no recourse, for the guns were aimed at them. One planter's 
share was $400,000. A little more " liberty " of this kind in Yucatan 
and the industries of the state would be no more. 

Then the Constitutionalists tackled the Church, but it was necessary 
now to take a further measure of precaution, so the Governor issued 
Decree No. 18, which " under authority vested in him by the First Chief 
of the Constitutionalist Army," considered: "that the government 
should aim to purify all social elements, in order to prepare for a vigorous 
revival of constitutional government — considering, secondly, that as the 
national press is amongst these elements it must have immediate attention, 
as up to the present time, editors have in their profession lacked the 
necessary social guarantee." (What this means, of course, was known 
only to the government. Editors have never been considered social 
beings by their contributors ; and the Governor of Yucatan had become 
quite a contributor to the press, with decrees at least.) So the Governor 
ordered that on the very next day all newspapers in the state should 
cease publication. And further, " that before resuming publication they 
would have to apply to the Governor for a permit, setting forth qualifica- 
tions and proofs of honesty, morality and capacity to direct such a pub- 
lication." The Governor offered to give such permits " to those who in 
his opinion possessed the necessary qualifications." 

The editors had to have their honesty passed upon by the greatest 
set of thieves that ever operated in the Republic of Mexico; their 
morality passed upon by the representatives of the most bestial soldiery 
that ever inflicted themselves upon a peaceful populace. The liberty of 
the press went out by the scratch of a governor's pen. Yet this is the 
government in which we Americans place our hopes for peace in Mexico. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 47 

Only last week I read a laudatory editorial on Carranza in one of the 
most prominent American dailies. I wonder how the writer of the 
editorial would enjoy having his hero pass upon his honesty and morality. 



All means of defense gone, and the press muzzled, then came the 
destruction of the Church. Archbishop and priests were exiled. The 
foreign priests, of course, went first. All residing in the State of Yucatan 
for less than thirty years had to go within five days' time. Sixty-five 
arrived in Cuba penniless. If they did not go peacefully, violence was 
threatened. They had already resorted to violence in Campeche. So the 
clergy were expelled as " pernicious foreigners," but not without protest. 
The ladies of Yucatan took up their cause and forwarded the following 
to the governor : 

" To the Honorable Governor: 

" We have come to intercede on behalf of those who have lived on 
the Yucatan soil, loving it as their own, dividing the sorrows and happi- 
ness of our land with us, with no other end than to propagate the doctrine 
of love, peace and mercy ; with no other idea than to give consolation to 
the fallen, courage to the harassed and hope to the despairing; with no 
other arms of defense than the image of Him who ordered us to love 
one another as brothers ; with no other politics than planting seeds of 
goodness, charity and the fulfilment of our duty; and with no other 
defense or shelter than faith in our laws and the guarantees of the 
Yucatan land as a mother to all living on her soil. Those men to-day, 
against whom no shade of wrong can be found in Yucatan or anywhere 
else, in whose lives society has never found the least flaw, are cruelly 
expelled from this land without any wrong-doing, but solely for political 
reasons to which they are entirely foreign. Our spirit can not conciliate 
this with the points of liberty and democracy stated in the Constitution. 
Those for whom we ask justice have had no part in the battles that have 
stained with blood our country and filled our homes with sorrow and 
pain. Here in Yucatan we do not and can not understand the danger 
that would compel the exiling of the priests, as from these priests that 
are to-day exiled we have only received lessons of piety, beneficial deeds 
and a public education. We desire for our children, for our brothers, and 
for all the sons of this Yucatan soil who want to keep their beliefs and 
their ideals as their richest social inheritance, the Christian education 
which is the most becoming for the safeguarding of dignity and nobility 
of life. You, Senor Governor, no doubt retain amongst your most pleas- 
ing remembrances those of your school days, and from which you have 
unquestionably found much consolation more than once. Therefore, 
Sir, we dare invoke the sweet, maternal love that, even after death, lives 
in your mind as a benediction from the regions of eternity, and are, 
therefore, sending to you our manifestation of pain and respectful sup- 
plication against the expulsion of foreign priests. We ask in the name 
of all Yucatan, in the name of all that live and love our land, and in the 
name of the blessed woman to whom you gave the sweet title of ' mother,' 



48 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

and who from Heaven joins us in our request, that you do not consent 
to close the Yucatan soil to those priests, and that they may not receive 
as compensation for their labors for good and peace, the bitterness of 
.exile. We ask that you do this for our people in the same spirit as if 
you were placing the case before your own father, and as if you wanted 
to deed a title of just pride to your son." 

" Requested in Merida on the 5th of the month of October, 1914." 
The above document will be interesting to those who assert that these 
expulsions of clergymen were desired by the people. It is at once a 
testimony to the priests themselves, to the religious character of the people 
of Yucatan and to the efficiency of the Church in that State. 

The appeal to the " liberties " guaranteed under the Constitution is 
certainly appropriate, when made to a Constitutionalist Governor; but 
not timely, for Villareal said : " We want to get along awhile without 
our Constitution." 

I have set down this story of Yucatan, not as a solitary example of 
overriding the laws and the Constitution of Mexico, but simply as an 
example of the peaceful actions of the Constitutionalists. It is true that 
the Governor of Yucatan did not murder any priests, nor did his soldiers 
outrage any Sisters, but he murdered the free press and outraged the 
laws. Yet we Americans expect that from such actions will come peace, 
tranquillity, and the revival of industry to the Repiiblic of Mexico. 



VI. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF CALUMNY. 



General Antonio I. Villareal was the president of the Constitutionalist 
convention at Aguascalientes. This convention was called for the purpose 
of bringing peace to Mexico. Its keynote was supposed to be conciliation. 
It began with a declaration of war against the Church, and ended with a 
declaration of war against the chief of the Revolution. It has plunged 
Mexico once more into a bath of blood. Villa is in arms against Carranza. 
They are flinging charges at one another ; and, incidentally, proving from 
their own mouths the charges that I make in this book. In the manifesto 
of General Villa against his rival, an original copy of which is in my 
possession, he charges his superior with having " interfered with liberty 
of conscience by the persecution of the Church; of having permitted 
governors to suppress religion, of imposing penalties on religious prac- 
tices authorized by law, of outraging profoundly the religious feelings of 
the people through acts condemned by civilization and the rights of 

nations." 

•I- 

Carranza's answer is interesting. He says : 

" If General Villa were capable of weighing the meaning of what 
they wrote for him to sign, he would not have put himself in such an 
unseemly situation by formulating the charges against me, because it was 
he himself who exaggerated this just resentment of the Constitutionalist 
party against the members of the Catholic clergy for sustaining the dic- 
tatorship. He went so far as to cause real alarm or indignation among 
all classes of society. 

" The fact is that General Villa, who now seeks an agreement with 
the clergy by showing himself so respectful toward religion and rehgious 
practices, did, in every place he occupied during the campaign, expel the 
priests, close the churches, and forbid religious exercises. And in Zaca- 
tecas his anti-religious fanaticism reached a climax which contrasts 
greatly with his present Christian meekness. He expelled eleven priests 
of different nationalities, of whom three were French, and of these no one 
yet knows their resting-place. 

" It is high time to recall to General Villa in this regard the hearty con- 
gratulation which he sent to General Antonio I. Villareal, Governor of 
Nueva Leon, when the latter published a decree in which he restricted 

49 



50 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

religious exercises and forbade Confession. The following is the text of 
the congratulatory message : 

" ' Chihuahua, July 29. 
" ' General Antonio I. Villareal, — I congratulate you heartily and 
enthusiastically on your decree imposing restrictions on the clergy in the 
State over which you worthily rule. And already I am hastening to 
follow your wise example, because, like yourself, I think that one of the 
greatest enemies of our progress and liberties has been the corrupt clergy 
who have so long ruled in our country. I salute you affectionately. 

" ' General-in-Chief Francisco Villa.' "' 



This effort on the part of General Carranza to shift the blame for 
outrages against liberty of conscience guaranteed by the Constitution 
weakens when it is understood that at no time before the rupture of the 
relations of the two leaders was General Villa anything but a subordinate 
of General Carranza. The latter claimed the title and rights of " First 
Chief," quarreled with the Aguascalientes Convention for daring to 
suggest that it was more powerful than he, and quarreled with Villa 
himself when he gave his allegiance to that body. On the other hand, 
after the Battle of Torreon, when Villa was certainly at the height of his 
power and all looked for him to proclaim his attitude and take the 
leadership, he gave out a statement, which was published in all the 
American and Mexican papers, acknowledging* his position of inferiority 
to that of Carranza, hailing him as his Chief, and proclaiming his loyalty 
to him. This declaration Carranza accepted. 

All this makes' very plain the fact that General Carranza was the man 
who directed the policy of the Revolutionists ; who was behind him makes 
little difference. It is certain that General Villa was not. He was acting 
under the orders, or according to the known policy of the First Chief. 
The responsibility rests with General Carranza. 

It is not without significance that the moment General Villa broke with 
his Chief, his policy toward religion changed ; and it was he who launched 
the charges of persecution and invasion of the rights of conscience against 
his former superior. Villa's name, it is true, appears in the accounts of 
the torturing of priests, but Villa's own actions were few. His officers, 
especially Colonel Fierro, seemed to take the actual work out of his hands. 
Much was done in Villa's name of which he probably knew very little. 
His account was bad enough. How much did certain officers add to it 
without his authority or with the certainty that he could not interfere? 
Villa's later actions do not agree with his former ones ; while Carranza 
began as a persecutor at Durango and persecutes still in the State of 
Vera Cruz. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 51 

This same Antonio I. Villareal, to whom General Carranza referred 
above, is, I believe, the man upon whom the chief responsibility for the 
persecutions rests. It was he who opened the convention of Aguas- 
calientes with an attack upon the Church, from which I take the following : 

" One of our main objects should be to annihilate our enemy, so that 
he may be absolutely dead. . . . Our Constitution prohibits confisca- 
tion; therefore we want to live a little time zvithout our Constitution. 
. . . We must tear from the enemy the foundations upon which a new 
revolution may be builded. We must tear from him his properties. We 
must make him impotent, as an enemy without gold is an enemy at whom 
we may laugh. Our enemy is privilege, the privilege maintained from 
the pulpit through the services of the entire Christian clergy. . . . 
We must tear away the wealth of the powerful and must also comply 
with the Laws of Reform, which refer to the wealth of the clergy. In 
the same manner that the Laws of Reform nationalize the property of 
the clergy, we must nationalize the property of privilege for the welfare 
of this Republic. It has been done. . . . From the clergy we must 
tear the property which they acquired under the conciliatory policy of 
General Diaz. They have a right to use the temples consecrated to 
religion, but no right to own, as they do, convents and beautiful buildings, 
all of which the priests call ' educational property,' but are nothing else 
than foundations of perversion for children's minds. 

" The Revolution should not attempt anything against liberty of 
conscience or liberty of worship. During the period of activity it was 
just and it has been done. It was in order to punish the clergy that 
associated with Huerta and the Catholics that furnished him money ; but 
past that period, we should, like good Liberals, respect all worship, but 
never allow our children to be poisoned. It is better to prohibit the 
teachings of the clergy than religion. Let them continue to preach, but 
prohibit their teaching-rights." 

From this speech, which was received with great applause by the con- 
vention, some things stand out very strongly. First, that the Constitu- 
tionalists do not want the Constitution until they have finished robbing, 
raping and murdering. No one can read anything else out of the 
discourse. Second, after they have taken all they can get, and have com- 
mitted all the atrocities in the calendar of crimes, then they want to sit 
down for a period of merited rest, with the money they have gathered, 
and ask the Republic to give them and their ill-gotten gains the protection 
of the law. Third, they desire to take away from the Church every- 
thing but the use of the church buildings ; that is, such of them as have 
not, at that time, been turned to other uses. This, of course, means 



52 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

liberty of conscience and worship ; hut the clergy must not do any more 
than pray in the churches. They will not he permitted to teach, to 
admJnister the Sacraments, to attend the dying, or, in fact, carry out their 
^ministry in any way except hy prayer. 

How would the Protestants of the United States like to be in this 
condition ? Supposing the shoe were on the other foot, would it pinch ? 
And yet a great many of our Protestant fellow-citizens hope for great 
things in Mexico from the Constitutionalist regime. 



It is interesting to ask how the clergy are supposed to live under these 
circumstances. According to Constitutionalist decrees, copies of which 
I have, they are forbidden to ask offerings or tithes. Now, all offerings 
and tithes for the support of religion in Mexico have been free-will 
offerings. No one has been taxed for the Church. No one has been 
forced to pay anything. In some sections of the Republic the old tithe 
custom has been kept up by the people themselves ; in other sections 
religion is supported only through offerings at baptism, marriages and 
funerals ; but these, too, are forbidden, and forbidden under severest 
penalties. So liberty of worship in Mexico is to consist of this: The 
clergy can not teach, therefore can not train candidates for the priest- 
hood in seminaries. That disposes of the question of having priests ; 
there can be none. It might be said that the deficiency can be made up 
from other countries; but a foreign clergy is prohibited in Mexico, and 
all the foreign clergy have already been expelled. The clergy has the full 
right and permission to pray, when it is provided that there will be no 
clergy at all to offer the prayers. Again, those priests who remain may not 
take up collections, may not receive offerings when people are accustomed 
to make them, may not live by their labor of love at all. In fear lest some 
of them could make a living otherwise, the law is to be enforced that they 
may not have investments, and may not even leave their family legacies 
to the upkeep of religion. This is " liberty of conscience." This is " free- 
dom of worship." This is " democratic government." With this program 
the Constitutionalists come before the American people to ask for sym- 
pathy and assistance ; and have had it. 

•I- 

How would this affect the Protestant missionaries in Mexico? They 
want it because they desire the destruction of the Catholic Church. Are 
they going to live within the law, or stand up against the law? They will, 
of course, live within the law ; but if foreign priests are not allowed, 
foreign ministers can not be allowed either. If they are, the law is 
violated. If they violate the law and live in Mexico, how about their 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 53 

teaching ? How about the many existing Protestant schools and colleges ? 
Will an exception be made in favor of these? If so, Protestants will be 
demanding the special privileges against which General Villareal shouts. 
If Protestants build churches, will not these also be confiscated? But, 
above all, what of the future? The aim of all Protestant missionary 
activity is to found Protestantism permanently. Missions call for begin- 
nings only. The day is looked forward to when the output from the 
missionary treasury will cease, and the converts support their own 
church. The missions are then said to be on a " self-supporting basis." 
Donors to missions in the United States are encouraged with the hope that 
many of their missions will soon be in that condition. Very well; how 
soon will the Mexican -Protestant missions arrive at that happy state 
under these laws, if the people may not give to the support of their work, 
even after it has been established? In their mad desire to kill off the 
Catholic Church, are not many of these reverend " generals " and 
" colonels " killing the goose that laid the golden egg for them ? But what 
need they care? They no longer need the goose. 



How does it come that General Villareal can utter such sentiments — 
utter them with impunity — and even win applause ? It has come about 
because of a campaign of calumny, the most outrageous that has ever 
occurred in the history of the world. It is perfectly true that isolated 
examples can be found everywhere of priests who have been unfaithful 
to their holy obligations, as of ministers who have been anything 
but examples to their flocks ; but that is only weak human nature 
occasionally showing itself. The overwhelming majority of the clergy of 
Mexico have been faithful, both to their vows and to their duties. Even 
Seiior Zubaran, who attempted to reply to Cardinal O'Connell, acknowl- 
edges this of the rank and file of the country priests; but the most 
exemplary priests in Mexico are the hard-working priests of the populous 
city parishes ; and the most pious of all have been the religious who were 
thrown out in a body. The most abominable stories have been circulated 
among the people of irregularities of the clergy, not forgetting even to 
slander individuals. For example, recently they sent through every 
Mexican paper accusations of rape against Father Vincente Latorre. His 
victim was supposed to be Miss Josefina Pimentel, and the priest was 
supposed to be in prison for his crime. The American-Mexican paper. 
El Presente, had the following about this charge in its issue of November 
7, 1914: 

" We have taken pains to investigate this, and information shows that 
it is untrue. Accusations of all kinds directed to the clergy in Mexico are 



54 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

all too frequent, and, for reasons or pretext always unfounded, the Car- 
ranzistas have exiled them. Let us not forget the accusation made of 
finding arms and ammunition in the temple of Santo Domingo, which was 
found to be a great untruth and which the Carranzistas themselves had to 
correct. 

" This is not a religious organ, nor have we any political agreement 
with the Church, but we aim to be defenders of truth and justice, and, 
therefore, believe the action of our colleagues a little hasty in accepting 
scandalous and untrue reports such as these. 

"As regards Miss Pimentel, we are assured that she is not known in 
Mexico." 

The editor states the truth. When the churches were looted, stories 
were given out that arms were found in them, skeletons of murdered 
people and skeletons of babies. No one in Mexico believes these stories 
except the ignorant ; but they serve their purpose. Most of them are for 
American consumption, and American consumption only. 

What are the facts regarding the condition of the Catholic Church in 
Mexico? Perhaps the best answer is the letter already quoted from the 
ladies of Yucatan. Read it over again ; it is enlightening. Then add to 
it the following, which is the translation of a signed statement made to 
me, and now in my possession, by a lawyer from Mexico, a writer of 
distinction and note: 

" I had not written to you, according to my promise, because I was 
awaiting the confirmation of some very important news from Mexico 
relating to a fact which fully corroborates an opinion of mine. 

" This news has just been confirmed by my wife, who received it from 

the Superior of the of Mexico City, who heard it from his 

confreres in Morelia. 

" This city (Morelia) is the capital of Michoacan, a very rich and pop- 
ulous State (having more than one million inhabitants, and unequaled for 
agriculture and mining) . It has for many years been noted for its fervent 
and solid piety. 

" Gertrudis Sanchez, who took part in Madero's revolution, a coarse 
and irreligious man, ordered the expulsion of the Salesians of Don Bosco 
and the confiscation of their college. (I must tell you, by the way, that 
I am proud to have had the honor of materially aiding in the foundation 
of this useful establishment.) 

" I forgot to tell you that this Sanchez, by the will and grace of Car- 
ranza, is now Governor of the State. 

" The Salesians are greatly liked by the people, who uprose to defend 
them, armed with guns, clubs, stones, whatever was at hand, and so 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 55 

intimidated the officials that they revoked the order, and for a few days 
left the poor exiles unmolested. 

" But Sanchez, who had gone to Mexico City after this, and there held 
conference with Carranza, drinking courage at that fountain, on his 
return to Morelia, convoked, at night and by stealth, not only the 
Salesians, but the entire clergy, to whom he gave notice of expulsion, 
giving as a reason, of course, that they were making fanatics of the 
people. 

" But the courageous population was ready, and several thousand men 
gathered in front of the Governor's palace. (Bear in mind that the city's 
population is 50,000.) All were armed as well as they could, all were 
prepared to fight and die, and when the Governor, trembling with rage 
(I do not say fear, for he is no coward), came out on the balcony and 
tried with fair words to calm the just riot, nothing could be heard but a 
shout from thousands of throats : ' Robber ! outlaw ! Godless wretch ! 
Either leave our priests in peace or we will destroy your palace !' 

" I believe that the soldiers of Sanchez sympathized with the people, 
for he himself, soulless as he is, made no attempt at resistance. On the 
contrary, he underwent the humiliation of having to revoke the decree, 
which had been orally given. The priests were carried in triumph to their 
houses by their brave deliverers, who have sworn never to permit such a 
savage and sacrilegious treatment of their clergy. 

" The Carranzista papers said not a word about this, which occurred 
during this very month of October (the second uprising was on the 17th) ; 
but the fact is notorious, and will serve as a lesson to many other cities 
just as Catholic as Morelia. And this confirms my idea that a leader 
who would proclaim the fullest religious liberty, such as exists in the 
United States, and does great honor to that noble country, would have 
in his favor the strongest national elements, and the result would neces- 
sarily be most favorable, for he would have established a strong, prudent 
and patriotic government. 

"If the American people would help us in this undertaking they 
would permanently cement the Christian alliance of two nations, and 
would deserve more glory for having procured freedom for our con- 
sciences than they already have for the emancipation of the negro. 

" Further commentary is unnecessary. You, honored sir, will readily 
understand that I am right. 

" You may publish this, if you like, but please do not mention my 
name or residence, for my family is still in Mexico, and those in power 
there are capable of anything ! 

" When my family (I do not know when!) will be at a safe distance, 
there is no fact to which I will not be ready to attest, and defend in every 
way." HE* 



56 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

But even far more interesting is the statement of a former Governor, 
himself a " Liberal." The statement was made before a notary in Texas, 
a copy of which is in the hands of His Excellency, the Apostolic Delegate 
at Washington. (A certified copy is in my possession.) The Governor 
resigned his high office, not because he was in sympathy with Huerta, but 
because he objected to Huerta's methods. He left his home for the sake 
of his two daughters. He states emphatically that the majority of the 
Mexican people are law-abiding and in favor of order. He states also 
that : " The Catholic Church, a few Protestant churches and all the 
other religious creeds of Mexico have never taken any part in this revo- 
lution." Again : " In order that you may understand that I am not 
untruthful and that I am not partial to priests, I will state that in politics 
I belong to the Benito Juarez party and I was always recognized as a 
member of the Liberal party. I have tried to practice the greatest respect 
toward the Catholic religion, and I know for certain that the priests of 
my State, after having suffered various vexations, and this without any 
motive or reason, have been exiled. We have had the good fortune of 
never having heard any scandal on the part of any of our clergy. The 
same may be said of the other religious sects. I repeat that never in any 
revolution has Mexico witnessed such barbarous excesses as in the present 
uprising, and I speak as one having experience, for I witnessed two and I 
fought on the side of Juarez. To-day there is no respect for any of the 
political divisions, or any religious body in Mexico. To me any man who 
is honest has a right to be respected, be he Catholic, Protestant or Jew. 
One may think " pro " or " con " about some ideas, but about stealing 
and killing there must be only one opinion. 

"As regards the clergy, they have no power, no chance to favor the 
rich people rather than the poor. Besides, the greater part of the clergy 
in Mexico comes from the poorer classes. Furthermore, the idea of 
morality and justice is prevalent in the minds of our priests." 

It is charged that the Church has kept the people of Mexico in 
ignorance, and that ninety per cent of these people are ignorant. The 
answer to this is very easy. 

I need only call attention to the fact that the history of the Catholic 
Church in Mexico may be divided into only two chapters : one, the 
Church under Spanish influence ; the other, the Church under the Re- 
public. The idea of giving freedom to the Church rarely occurs to the 
Latin governmental mind. Its idea of the separation of Church and 
State never admits the possibility of the Church being free within the free 
State. The separation laws of France clearly show what I mean. Under 
the pretext of separation, a plan was introduced which, if accepted, would 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 57 

have utterly destroyed the Church. The Latin statesman, when hungry, 
wants a chance to take a bite out of the Church. Nothing else will satisfy 
him. Under Spanish rule the Church had often to be used as far as 
possible to develop Spanish power. Later the Government seized 
churches, religious institutions and church property. It gave back the 
church buildings and some of the institutions, but on condition that it 
could keep the property and in reparation pay for the upkeep of religion. 
It took that burden, therefore, away from the Church, while indirectly 
keeping it upon the people. It made itself the gatherer of God's share, so 
that it could always keep its hands on the source of supply. It dictated 
appointments of bishops and pastors, and said how far the Church could 
go in carrying out her teaching mission. Its policy was to send to the 
colonies the unworthy clergymen, who were not wanted abroad. Bishops 
had no choice but to accept them. It hampered the Church on every side, 
and then blamed it for the consequences it had brought upon itself. In 
spite of this, the Church Christianized the people. But Spanish laws 
were enforced which did not suit the colonies. Nothing could be done 
without the consent of the Spanish monarch. Education was hampered ; 
but, in spite of this, the Church established schools. The Franciscans 
and other missionaries placed schools side by side with their monasteries. 
At first the Indians did not go to them, but after a while their opposition 
was overcome. In 1524 there was not a single Indian who could read. 
Twenty years later, when Bishop Zumarraga wanted a book translated 
into the Indian tongue, he mentioned the good it might do, because 
" there are so many who know how to read." Pedro de Gante had a 
thousand children under his instruction, teaching them religion, music, 
singing and Latin. He began a school for grown-up people and founded 
another for fine arts and crafts. Some of the schools had as many as 
from eight hundred to a thousand pupils. In spite of the difficulties, the 
Church did all she could, and the Government as little as possible. 

When the Revolution came, and with it the Laws of Reform of 
Benito Juarez, an end came also to what little freedom the Church had: 
She was despoiled of such possessions as had been left her. She was 
forbidden to teach, which means to open schools of any kind, except of 
theology. Her ministers even could not dress as clerics. The law of 
May 13, 1873, forbade any religious demonstration outside of a church 
building, and forbade clergymen or Sisters to dress in any way that would 
indicate their calling. The Constitution of 1857 interfered with personal 
liberty to the extent of forbidding anybody to enter a religious Order, 
and refused religious Orders a legal right to hold property. The law of 
July 12, 1859, suppressed religious Orders and religious societies, forbade 
the foundation of new congregations, ordered all books, manuscripts. 



58 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

prints and antiquities belonging to such Orders to be given up. The law 
of February 26 suppressed female communities. The law of July 12, 
1859, took away all property from the clergy; but that of February 5, 
1861, returned to the Church its parochial residences, bishops' houses, 
etc. Then September 25, 1873, saw a new law which forbade any religious 
institution to acquire property or the revenue derived from it. The law 
of December 14, 1874, struck at the right of the clergy to receive legacies. 
The law of. July 31, 1859, took away from the clergy the right to manage 
or have anything to do with cemeteries. The law of February 2, 1861, 
took from the Church her hospitals and charitable institutions, as also 
did a law of February 28 of the same year. To make it more certain 
that the Church could not be charitable, the law of August 27, 1904, 
forbade clergymen to act as directors and administrators, or patrons of 
private charities, and extended this decree even to include those delegated 
by clergymen. It will clearly be seen that, under the Constitution and 
Laws of Reform, the clergy had little power left, and the Church little 
chance to uplift the people. A Mexican archbishop has written : " Not 
only was the Church despoiled of her ancient properties and oppressed 
by tyrannical laws, but the situation was rendered more difficult later on 
by the Law of Public Instruction." However, General Diaz permitted 
some educational foundations, seeking his authority under the Law of 
Private Beneficence ; but under this law, even if the priests themselves 
wished to found a work of charity, they had to leave religion out of it. 
Yet, in spite of it all, some schools were founded — many, in fact — but 
always under the danger of information being laid against their directors 
and persecution following. A Mexican bishop, now in exile, told me 
that Mexican Catholics who desire to give religious instruction to their 
children have to go the length of " seeing " the secular schoolmaster, and 
even bribing him not to tell on them. Still, one religious Order had over 
four million dollars invested in schools and colleges. The Constitu- 
tionalists took it all, but left the mortgages for the Order to pay. Then 
they assassinated the professors of Zacatecas, destroyed the libraries, etc. 

All these unjust laws are the more to be regretted when it is known that 
only the Church can educate or civilize the Indians. With the Indian the 
civil power is impotent. The Indian is religious. He may be deceived 
into revolution, but it must be deception that brings him into it. Car- 
ranza's troops told the Indians that they were fighting against a certain 
Mr. Qergyman (Don Clero), and the Indian was always looking for this 
tyrant, not knowing that it was the Church the Carranzistas meant. The 
suppression of the flourishing missions of the Jesuits and the Franciscans 
in the north of Mexico, at the end of the eighteenth century, resulted 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 59 

either in the complete extinguishing of these Indians or their return to 
barbarism. Within the last few years missions among the Indians started 
again ; but now they are destroyed. What must be said of the " patriot- 
ism " that, in a country where ninety per cent of the people are illiterate, 
destroys, or attempts to destroy, the only power that has shown its ability 
to do the work of civilization ? They may advance theories by the bushel, 
but there is no theory regarding the work of the Church. A business 
man does not desert his true and tried methods of securing business. He 
tests his theories before he replaces the old by the new. Mexico, fifty 
years ago, embarked in a new venture. The result has been constant 
revolution, murder, destruction of property, and crimes which cry to 
heaven for vengeance; and now those responsible ask the world to 
believe that it is all done in the name of liberty, and that the Church which 
their forerunners reduced to impotence is responsible for it. 

The revolutionists frankly directed their efforts against the rich as 
well as against the clergy. They demanded the forcible impoverishment 
of the wealthy class, without due process of law and without compensa- 
tion. They have put this into force wherever they could. They have 
seized haciendas, forcibly entered homes and drove the owners and their 
families on the streets, moving in themselves. Now they insist that the 
clergy catered to the rich, and are, therefore, become the enemies of the 
poor. They forget that it is the province of the Church to aid and 
comfort the poor, and that the only means she has for doing it is her 
influence in securing the money for carrying on her work from those 
who have it to give. She has, therefore, always in history stood between 
the rich and the poor. If this were not her position, how could she 
establish her hospitals, schools, orphanages, and a thousand other works 
of charity? Even in the United States the cry goes up that the Church (by 
which is meant all Christian religious effort) should devote itself more to 
philanthropy and less to the cultivation of simple piety. In other words, 
the demand is being made that the Church more than ever must devote 
herself to securing from the rich the means to alleviate suffering. How 
could religion answer that demand if its enemies charge that it caters to 
the rich when it begs from them? In Mexico the Constitutionalists not 
only kill the Church because they say she does no good, but, on the other 
hand, they kill her when she does do good. 

During the Spanish regime in Mexico the Church maintained as 
friendly a relation with the State as was possible. If she had not main- 
tained such relations her voice would never have been heard in court. 
It was the influence of the Church that secured a hearing for Las Casas 
against the oppressors of the Indians. To-day in Mexico the Church has 



60 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

no influence. A new Las Casas could accomplish nothing; but the 
Church has had some influence with property-holders, which was always 
used to favor the poor. The only mitigation of the hard lot of some of 
the peons was won by the influence of the Church over individuals. 

The Constitutionalists insist that the people of Mexico are against the 
Church ; yet, when the churches are opened, they are crowded. In more 
than one case the persecutors had to stop their fury in fear of an uprising 
among the people, who crowded around the exiled priests until the leaders 
were terrified. Rut the same leaders took good care in the next place that 
the people could not menace them, for they took away their weapons. 

The Zapata revolution is a case in point. Zapata has held two States 
in a grip of iron. His revolution is popular. His soldiers are the only 
ones who show a disposition to work. They have taken up land and 
they are cultivating it. A short time ago I met a prominent gentleman, 
Mexican, who had gone through the entire length of Zapata's territory 
in carriage and on horseback. He scarcely saw a soldier. People were 
working in their fields. The Church in Zapata's territory has not been 
molested. Churches are open, and one of the bishops, at this writing, is 
actually out on his confirmation tour. If the Revolution is a popular 
uprising against the Church, why is it that Zapata holds his power 
through the popularity of his movement with the people, though he has 
made no attack whatever upon the Church and religion? Some excesses 
have been committed by Zapatists, it is true, but by the camp-followers. 
None of the exiles I met have charged Zapata with responsibility for 
them. On the contrary, they warmly defended him, and stated that 
when outrages have been committed neither Zapata himself nor the 
general run of his people had any responsibility for them. On the other 
hand, outrages by Constitutionalists had been fomented by the most 
abominable calumnies, and by the leaders themselves. They manu- 
factured plots out of whole cloth. " Conspiracies by the clergy," never 
even thought of before the troops entered, were announced even before 
the Constitutionalists had had time to make an investigation. 

The cry in this revolution has been a cry for vengeance against the 
assassins of Madero. Carranza himself makes this his rallying cry, 
forgetting that he himself was against Madero and intended leading a 
revolution against him. The opportunity which arose through Madero's 
death did not change his mind about a revolution, but changed the details. 
Now he charges the clergy with having cooperated in the assassination of 
Madero. His proof is that the clergy recognized Madero's government. 
How much truth is there in this statement? 

The revolution which ended in the assassination of Madero lasted ten 
days. It came on suddenly and without warning. These days are called 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 61 

the " Ten Tragic Days." The outbreak occurred in the City of Mexico, 
and was practically confined to that city. If the clergy were in league to 
bring about the downfall of Madero, it might be expected that the revo- 
lution would have been general. What time did the clergy have to 
compass their ends in ten days, and what object could they have had for 
bringing about the downfall of the first government in fifty years ivhich 
permitted free elections, by means of which the Catholic party, it is 
conceded, would have been placed in power? The downfall of Madero 
was a blow to the interests of religion. It is perfectly true that the 
bishops and clergy recognized the government of Huerta. What else 
could they do ? He had been placed in power according to the laws and 
Constitution of Mexico. He had been recognized by the Congress, the 
Senate, the Supreme Court and the diplomatic corps, including the 
American Minister. The Church stands for lawful authority. When 
that authority is in power it is the duty of the Church to accept it and 
live under it. This is exactly what was done. It is not the business of 
the Church to foment revolution. The clergy had no right to put Huerta 
on trial. Neither the laws of Mexico nor their own obligation as priests 
assigned to them any such duty. The Church wanted peace, and accepted 
Huerta as she had accepted Madero. Had she done otherwise, there 
might have been a lawful charge against her of fostering rebellion ; but 
against the Church the charges will be made anyhow. The hatreds of man 
for man are unaccountable enough, but there is a still more unaccountable 
hatred of man for God, and all that represents Him. 

►I- 

I have seen a document issued by the Constitutionalist representatives 
in New York City, attempting to prove that the Church was playing 
politics. The letter is dated July 11, 1913. It is from Archbishop Mora 
of Mexico City to Sehor Urrutia. The Archbishop said : " I beg to 
assure you once more that all the curates and priests under my jurisdic- 
tion, in compliance with their duty, will make every effort, in order to 
bring about, as soon as possible, the fulfillment of the aspirations of all 
the good people in this Republic, who desire the peace and tranquillity 
of the beloved country. I say that they do so in compliance with their 
duty, because the Church desires peace and to avoid bloodshed, and that 
all cooperate to the ultimate object of' society, which is the well-being 
of all its members." Is there anything in these words that indicates more 
than a desire to work under the existing form of government, with an 
object of bringing peace to the country? This is the evidence put forth 
by the representatives of the Constitutionalists themselves to justify 
murder, exile, imprisonment and unspeakable outrages against the 
innocent. What decent court could accept such evidence? Did even 



62 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

Robespierre send a single person to the guillotine on such testimony? If 
he did, who wants to be classed with Robespierre ? 

Truth is that the Constitutionalists have gone forward without even 
a probability of evidence. They have gone forward in the face of a 
pastoral letter, issued by a number of bishops in the City of Mexico, 
protesting vigorously, while Huerta was still in power, that neither the 
Church nor the clergy had mixed up in revolution or in political matters. 
As one Mexican archbishop said to me : " These men have adopted the 
cry of Voltaire, ' Fling mud ; some of it will stick.' " They fling the mud 
in such generous quantities that some of it is bound to stick ; even in the 
face of the fact that Huerta himself, whom the Church was supposed to 
uphold, gave out a law of oppression concerning ecclesiastical property, 
and suppressed Catholic newspapers, among them La Nacion, the organ 
of the Catholic party, simply because this party refused him votes. He 
exiled its president and persecuted its members ; yet they charge that he 
was the candidate of the Catholics themselves. 



VII. 

OUTSIDE INFLUENCES AGAINST THE CHURCH IN MEXICO. 

The assertion that the recent revolution in Mexico was financed and 
the revolutionists armed by capitalists in the United States, one meets 
constantly and hears on every side. I have never heard it denied, even 
in our own country. Americans do not take the trouble to deny what 
they believe to be true. With that situation I have nothing at all to do. 
As a citizen of the United States I deeply regret it, but my present dis- 
cussion concerns chiefly the outrages against religion. 

The charge that the Government of the United States directly aided 
and abetted the revolutionists I do not entirely believe. I have too high 
a regard for President Wilson to concede anything of the kind. I do 
believe that he was mistaken ; but I also believe that, for the mistake, 
biased information and biased investigators were mainly responsible. I 
believe that men sent by the President to report facts as they found them 
reported visionary dreams of things as they wanted them. I believe it, 
too, on the testimony of honorable men, who had more opportunity of 
knowing the actual condition of things in Mexico than these strangers, 
some of whom could not even speak the language of the country, but who 
allowed their own bigotry to taint their judgment. Senor Frisbie, an 
American and the son of General Frisbie, who spent nearly all of his life 
in Mexico, informed me that, on a Ward Line boat for New York, he 
met the wife of one of these representatives, who was himself on the 
boat, returning to report to the President, and that this lady said to him, 
not knowing that he was a Catholic, that " the priests and nuns should 
be driven out of Mexico." Another of these representatives made similar 
statements in Vera Cruz to a gentleman whose letter I have in my posses- 
sion. But all that is neither here nor there. It concerns the political 
situation, which, so far as this book is concerned, is no affair of mine. 

Two outside influences were exerted, and have been exerted for years, 
to the injury of the Catholic Church in Mexico. Otie of these is the 
influence of secret societies and the other the influence of a section of 
American Protestantism. 

Concerning the influence of the first, the following editorial, taken 
from the New York Times of November 8, 1914, will be enlightening: 

" The reappearance as a threatening factor in Mexican politics of 
Scottish Rite Masonry is a phenomenon which merits a word of present 

63 



64 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

comment. In 1824, with the very beginning of modern Mexico, the two 
principal poHtical factions were alHed either with the Scottish or York 
Rites of Masonry. The Scottish Rite had grown up under Spanish 
influence and was all-powerful until our first diplomatic representative in 
the young republic, Joel Poinsett of South Carolina, remembered now 
chiefly as the botanist who gave his name to the poinsetta, founded the 
York Rite purely as a political factor. The lodges of the Yorkinos, who 
were much less exclusive than the Escoseses, multiplied rapidly and 
exerted all the influence of the various branches of an American political 
machine. Of course, Poinsett was not authorized by our Government to 
meddle in Mexican politics or to extend the influence of Masonry in 
Mexico, and his imprudence eventually led to his recall. But for many 
years Masonry exerted a strong factional force throughout the country, 
and the sudden reappearance of the Scottish Rite, in a pronunciamento 
against the United States Government for not withdrawing the troops 
from Vera Cruz without conditions, suggests that Masonry may have been 
exerting its influence quietly in the upheavals of the last four years. 

"Of course, the historic Masonry of Mexico took on its political 
purpose accidentally. The order of Scotch Masons was largely composed 
of men of Spanish blood, the aristocracy of the country which had thrown 
off the foreign yoke, put its first Emperor to death, and asserted itself as 
a self-governed community. They worked together for protection. But 
Poinsett's York Grand Lodge was founded deliberately with political 
intent and inevitably lent fresh political strength to the older lodge. The 
survival or the revival of Masonry as a force in politics in Mexico is 
interesting, and may be important. The report that all the signers of the 
inflammatory document have been put in jail indicates that the authorities 
in Mexico City do not view favorably the intrusion of secret societies in 
politics." 

I do not, in publishing the above editorial, desire to make charges 
against the rank and file of the membership of the American Masonic 
body. I am not unaware of the fact that Masonry in the United States is 
considered by the great majority of its members as nothing more than a 
fraternal or social organization ; but Masons themselves in America have 
recognized the fact that the Masonic body all over the world does not 
hold the same ideals. It will be remembered that some years ago, a protest 
was made by a Masonic body in Canada to the English Grand Master (at 
that time the Prince of Wales, who afterward became King Edward 
VII.) against the establishment in Montreal of lodges operating under a 
charter from the Grand Orient of France. Their objection was based 
upon the fact that such lodges were anti-Christian, while Masonry under 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 65 

British jurisdiction held belief in God to be a fundamental condition for 
membership. Their protest was ineffectual, for the foreign lodges were 
established, and, as a matter of fact, exist to-day. It will also be remem- 
bered that only three or four years ago, when Montreal was preparing 
for the great Eucharistic Congress, which would bring to the city Catholic 
prelates, priests and laymen from all over the world, and was, as a matter 
of fact, the largest convention the city was ever called upon to handle, it 
was discovered that one of these foreign lodges deliberately planned to 
direct visiting priests to houses of ill-fame instead of to respectable 
boarding-houses, and afterward to have the places raided, so as to make 
it appear that priests had chosen such residences during their stay at 
Montreal. The exposure of the whole plot was made in the public press of 
Montreal. If proof is needed that American Masons know that universal 
Masonry is something entirety different from their own ideals, it is found 
in the acknowledgment of the British and American lodges themselves, 
whose members claim openly that they have no affiliation with what we 
might call Latin Masonry, which includes the Masonry of Mexico and 
South America. I have talked with hundreds of American Masons, and 
every one has the same statement to make, that Latin Masons would not 
be received in American lodges. However, this statement is not entirely 
true, though those who make it believe that it is. Even Latin Masonry is 
divided. In Italy, where Latin Masonry is strong, the division exists ; 
and the point of difference is the question of political activity and infi- 
delity. As an illustration, it may be remembered that when Mr. Theodore 
Roosevelt visited Rome he received representatives of one body of Italian 
Masons, headed by Baron Fava, as brothers. Representatives of the 
other had no such recognition. Now, no one for an instant dreams that 
Theodore Roosevelt, Mason, would affiliate himself with men who aim at 
the destruction of order and who deny the existence of God, any more 
than any one would believe that William H. Taft, Mason, could do the 
same thing. There are numberless American Masons who have not only 
been most friendly with their Catholic fellow-citizens, but are even sin- 
cere admirers of the Catholic Church. No one believes that these men 
have any desire to see her influence destroyed, her charities broken up, 
and her children left without religious direction of any kind. We may 
safely absolve the great body of American Masons from the charge of 
knowingly injuring the Church in Mexico. 

Nevertheless, it is true that, from the great body of American Masons, 
some men have been selected who are in sympathy with the irreligious 
propaganda of Latin Masonry ; and there is every reason to believe that, 
through these men, Masonic influence has wrought injury to religion in 
Mexico. How far this has gone no one can tell, but that representatives 



66 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

of the United States have fraternized with the Masons in Mexico is 
openly charged by the Mexicans themselves. I have a letter from which 
this remarkable statement is taken : " When the Masons in Mexico called 
on United States Masons to get us out of Vera Cruz, I knew," etc. 



What evidence my informant had I do not know. Having been in 
Vera Cruz practically from the beginning of American occupation, he 
was in a position to learn things that I could not possibly have learned 
The point I desire to make is, that American Masons, viewing their society 
purely as a fraternal and social organization, can scarcely blame the 
Church for objecting when all we know of Masonry, outside of British 
and American possessions, is that the fraternity stands before the people 
as religion's unqualified and unrelenting enemy, through whose influence 
murders, robberies, exilings and worse have been perpetrated, not only 
in Mexico, but also in Portugal. It is a recognized fact in both Italy and 
France that Masonry stands for irreligion and the total destruction of the 
Catholic Church. 

In Mexico, though Porfirio Diaz was himself a Mason, yet during his 
dictatorship the lodges were greatly reduced in membership. When 
Madero came into power there was a campaign for active reorganization. 
This campaign sought recruits not only among the middle class, but also 
among the workingmen. Before the revolution entered cities, the lodges 
fiercely attacked the Catholic religion, through calumnies from press and 
platform. Their members served as spies and informers, and even 
exposed the hiding-places of the priests and of the sacred vessels. This 
is not a guess. It is an admitted fact all over Mexico. 

El Liberal, the official organ of Carranza, can be quoted as an authority 
upon this point. 

It charges that the Church in Mexico wants American intervention, 
in spite of the fact that two archbishops have issued letters as patriotic 
as any statements ever given out in Mexico, and in spite of the fact that 
not one of the churchmen who are refugees here would even consider the 
idea of upholding intervention. The Mexican bishops and priests are 
Mexicans and patriotic men. 

" It is indispensable," says El Liberal, " that to accomplish our deter- 
mination a strong call be made to the followers of truth to come to the 
line to fight for victory or death, for liberty and fraternity in the temples 
consecrated by triumphs and inexplicable abnegations — the lodges. 
. . . We Mexican lovers of liberty, equality and fraternity, let us 
hasten to join the army of the defense of these ideals. Let us work in 
our lodges toward its realization." 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 67 

When I charge that a section of American Protestantism has played 
an evil part in the Mexican persecution, I do not intend to charge my 
Protestant fellow-citizens in general with the crime. There are some 
thirty million people in the United States who have allied themselves in 
some way with Protestantism. Most of these meet their Catholic fellow- 
citizens socially and in a business way every day. They live at peace 
with them, and they ask for nothing better than that this condition 
continue. They are willing to grant to others the liberty of conscience 
which they desire for themselves. They know their Catholic fellow- 
citizens. They have confidence in them. Many of their families are allied 
with Catholic families by ,marriage or ties of blood. They contribute to 
Catholic charities, and often generously at that. They believe the Catholic 
Church has a mission in the United States, and they look upon the Church 
as having given a notable contribution to the peace and prosperity of this 
Republic. In American wars they have fought side by side with Catholic 
soldiers, as to-day they work side by side with Catholic men and women 
in the daily duties of life. It is far from my thought to charge such men 
and women with complicity in the outrages perpetrated in Mexico. 

Still there is another section, representing the uneducated and bigoted 
sectarians among Protestants. Nothing less than the total destruction of 
the Catholic Church in America would satisfy them, and to bring about 
such a result they would not hesitate at all to revive the iniquities of past 
ages, when religion was so bound up with the politics of nations that in 
her name thousands were sent to their death. This section has many 
papers and magazines devoted to the cause of religious enmity. One of 
these papers has a circulation of a million and a half. Decent Protestants 
have protested against this situation. They have been horrified at the vile 
calumnies these organs of bigotry fling at the Church and her priesthood. 
Their protest has been voiced time and again by such men as Dr. Wash- 
ington Gladden. The secular papers will not print their tirades, but still 
they go on with their work. They scatter their infamous libels. They 
call the Pope " the Chief of White Slavers." They brand priests as 
monsters of iniquity. They declare our religious houses to be dens of 
prostitution. They put the mark of shame upon pure and virtuous 
Catholic womanhood, a mark which the worst libertine is willing to 
declare, from his own experience, to be notoriously undeserved. The 
papers printing such libels freely circulate through our mails at second- 
class rates. Consequently they are virtually subsidized by the Government 
and Catholics themselves are taxed to uphold them. The Dominion of 
Canada has refused permission to circulate such papers through its post- 
offices, or even through other carriers. We permit it all in the name of a 
free press ; but it is not liberty of the press that we are granting, but the 
beginning of unbridled license. ju 



68 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

The vile calumnies of these people have been circulated in Mexico. 
Their lurid tales have been printed in Spanish, with the intention of 
swaying Mexican Catholics from their allegiance to the Church. They 
have preached in Mexico through Protestant missionaries that the United 
States is a Protestant nation, but Protestant in their own sense; so that 
whatever is done against the Catholic Church surely meets with approval. 
A court of the Guardians of Liberty, the bigoted society which has 
General Miles for its leader, sent to Villa the following letter : 

"Alamo Court, No. 1, Guardians of Liberty of Texas, a patriotic 
organization of American citizens, with courts throughout the entire 
United States, which has for its purpose the maintaining of the United 
States Constitution and the complete separation of Church and State, 
desires to express to you, and other patriotic Mexicans, our hearty 
approval of your actions and the great good and service you have and are 
rendering your people and the country. 

" We would especially commend your actions in ridding your country 
of the basest of human vultures, the Catholic priesthood. Whenever 
women are forced to secretly confess to a man who has never married, 
and knows nothing of the sacredness of woman or of home, it is but 
natural for immorality to exist, and until this practice is stopped it is 
impossible to raise up a liberty-loving, intelligent, patriotic, moral gen- 
eration. 

" Again assuring you of our appreciation of your invaluable worth to 
your country, and trusting that you may continue your good work until 
the people of your country are freed, indeed, from the root of the trouble, 
the Roman Catholic Church, in the language of the patriot, we would 
exclaim, ' Viva Mexico by Villa !' " 

This was openly offering the encouragement which we very well 
knew had been for a long time extended secretly. All of these things 
are done in the name of American Protestantism, and done in such a way 
as to make American Protestants responsible for them. Protestant 
missions in Mexico have their share of the blame for the persecutions. 
For years they have been working, but their achievements have been 
practically nil. By this time people ought to know from experience that 
the Latin is a Catholic or nothing. When he loses his allegiance to the 
Church he becomes an infidel or an atheist. Such a being as an 
indifferentist can hardly find room to breathe among Latin people. The 
Latin must be one thing or the other. Those who are swayed from the 
Catholic Faith by Protestant missionary efforts land in the ranks of open 
infidelity, enemies to all religion. What triumph is it for Protestantism 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 69 

that France persecuted the Catholic Church, when Viviani declared that 
his task was to " blot out the stars from heaven " ? What triumph did 
Protestantism gain from the new birth of atheism in Portugal? If 
Protestants believe that the Catholic Church is Christian at all, why do 
they follow a plan which they know will destroy Christianity with the 
Church? Can any one answer these questions? To me they are mys- 
teries beyond solution. In Mexico former Protestant ministers are to-day 
" generals, colonels and captains." The Provisional President, Guiterrez, 
is said to be an ex-Protestant minister. The revolutionary governors of 
two states were Protestant ministers. Almost to a man have these former 
salaried officials of American Protestant missionary societies entered the 
ranks of revolutionists. 



VIII. 

A LAST WORD. 

This story I have written down as I received it from the mouths of 
eye-witnesses. I am well aware of the fact that due allowance must be 
made for natural resentment in those who were the victims of injustice 
toward their persecutors. I have no objection to the reader making his 
own allowance in this regard, and making the allowance as generously as 
he pleases. There still remain the great facts of the case : the murder, 
exile, imprisonment, rape and robbery of the innocent. Nations often 
have in history been built on a foundation of crime, but we all had hope 
that the enlightened twentieth century would have nothing to add to the 
evil record. In making your allowances will the reader please weigh 
these, some findings of my own, to the evidence? 

First. In all my conversations with the refugees, lay and clerical, I 
met but few who were not enlightened men and women, many highly 
educated, all sober and serious, some speaking many languages, most of 
them graduates of colleges and universities — in short, the kind of people 
the average American citizen likes to know, and feels honored in knowing. 

Second. Among these refugees I found but one who disliked Mexico 
and would not return there under any circumstance. In justice to him, 
however, I must state that he was not a Mexican citizen, and that he had 
private reasons of his own for the dislike, reasons which any red-blooded 
man would justify sentimentally, if not logically. All the others loved 
Mexico and wanted nothing better than the opportunity to return to their 
native land. They desire peace and the reign of law. Their passionate 
attachment to their country might well be envied by our more matter-of- 
fact sort of patriotism. 

Third. Not one Mexican with whom I conversed desired the inter- 
vention of the United States, if such intervention meant the loss to his 
country of her independence. The utmost limit of their concession to the 
necessity of intervention was for that kind of intervention which would 
guarantee beforehand the integrity of their nation, and her freedom as 
soon as peace was restored and a just and stable government set up. 
They all believed that the United States could well be a sister, but never 
a successful stepmother to Mexico. 

Fourth. I found that every one of these refugees had lost all sus- 
picion of American motives, even though condemning what they consid- 

70 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 71 

ered our " mistakes " in dealing with Mexican problems. They had 
learned that our motives, that is, the motives of the great mass of the 
American people, were good. 

Fifth. The charitable and fraternal action of American Catholics 
deeply touched the refugees, and, learning of the liberty of conscience 
enjoyed in this Republic, their admiration increased with their gratitude. 
I could not help thinking that this argues more for the prosperity of 
future trade relations than the cruel policy of concession-grabbers, whose 
money and influence have deluged Mexico with innocent blood. A founda- 
tion is now laid for a brotherly feeling between Americans and Mexicans. 
Love will build up what cupidity has destroyed. 

On these things, as well as on the facts before presented, let me base 
my last word about Mexico to my fellow-citizens, Protestant and Catholic. 

There is need in the world to-day of an enlightened nation, honoring 
God, loving peace and presenting ideals of true liberty, whose very 
existence will be a rebuke to lawlessness, and whose greatest message is 
the old message of faith, hope and charity. There is need in this Western 
world of a great nation, whose glory is not in conquest by arms, or even 
conquest in commerce, but rather in a spirit of justice and fraternity 
which permeates all its people. We all think that the United States comes 
nearer both ideals than any nation yet born to the earth ; but, alas ! her 
sister nations on this Western hemisphere look at her with suspicion not 
unmixed with fear. To them she is " The Colossus of the North," whose 
sons come only to extort riches, while scorning their people, berating their 
convictions, mocking their religion, and often fomenting bloody discords. 
Have we any idea how deeply many of our fellow-citizens have gone in 
encouraging and paying for the frequent revolutions of which we speak 
so often with such contempt? 

We, who love to think that we regard the rights of conscience above 
all other rights, do we reflect on the fact that, in our name and to the 
flaunting of our flag, we send to the neighbors whose good will we desire 
to cultivate, men who tell them that their ideals of centuries must be 
abandoned, that their methods of worshiping God are idolatrous, that 
their own sons in the clergy are moral lepers, that their own daughters 
who have adopted the religious state are dupes and prostitutes, that their 
shrines are abominations, that their love for God is a sham ? 

Do we ever reflect that Spanish civilization has had a more difficult 
task than " Anglo-Saxon " civilization in the Americas, in that it was 
" handicapped " by the inexorable Faith which forced the conqueror to 
preserve and not destroy the conquered, and, thus limited, could not 
colonize one-tenth as much as attempt to civilize? Do we give the 



72 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

Spanish conqueror of Indian nations credit for the fact that, when he 
brought his Church with him he was hampering the exercise of his own 
power, by rehgion's demand to give the Indian the right to Hve? Does 
he not sometimes stop to think what would be the condition even of these 
United States had the conquerors here preserved the Indian to the 
extent of outnumbering the whites ten to one ? Could we expect anything 
better, under such conditions, than Mexico has, and some other Spanish 
republics have, to-day? 

Let us be fair. Spain preserved where we destroyed. With a con- 
stantly diminishing Indian population, wards of the State, having schools 
and colleges for all who wish to enter them, what one of our Indians has 
ever shown the governmental and military genius of a Diaz, the intelligent 
bravery of a Mejia, the surgical ability of a Urrutia, the philosophical 
knowledge of a Munguia, the science of a Carrillo y Azcona, the theo- 
logical training of an Alarcon, the poetic fire of an Altamirano, the 
political acumen of an Estagnol, the legal and journalistic career of 
Sanchez Santos, the ^.rtistic talents of Panduro and Velazquez ? Indians ? 
Yes, all Indians, pure-blooded Indians. Name those of ours whose 
genius has made such marks on the history of our country. Sitting Bull? 
Geronimo ? Alas ! such a beginning speaks badly for an ending. Think 
this over before you condemn Spanish civilization in the Americas. We 
have little to show for one hundred years of " Anglo-Saxon " attempts 
to uplift our Indians. Yet the Indians of Mexico have produced men of 
letters, artists, statesmen, soldiers, scientists, learned bishops and priests — 
men of genius. But for all of that Spain's government was not respon- 
sible. The credit belongs to the maligned Church, which stood out, with 
Fray Las Casas, Fray Martin of Valencia, and Bishop Juan de Zumarraga, 
for the rights of the natives, and sacrificed their entire lives for their 
conversion, civilization and protection. What if there still remain some 
of the ancient superstitions ? Have we, the enlightened, gotten rid entirely 
of ours ? What of the Wall street broker who still trusts the clairvoyant 
before his brains, who will not fling his hat on a hotel bed because the 
action is supposed to be unlucky? What of the thirteen-at-table nonsense, 
or the fear of beginning a work on Friday ? The missionaries of Mexico 
did not transplant Spaniards to Mexican soil to grow a garden without 
seeding and to dispossess the wild beauty already there. They seeded 
the ground anew, and grafted religion and civilization to plants their 
colonies already had. Thus they worked to gradually clear off the ancient 
superstitions. We tried to burn off our Indians' superstitions, and our 
Indians went fast with them. We transplanted England and Ireland, 
Scotland and Germany here ; but the Indians who yet live have still their 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 73 

superstitions. They are dying, in many cases, with them. It's a different 
story, that of Mexico and that of our country ; but, for the ancient people 
of both, those of Mexico have the greater reason for gratitude. 

When Sir Lionel Garden, the British Ambassador to Mexico under 
Huerta, left this country for England, he expressed sympathy for the 
" decent people " of Mexico. Do we even think of these " decent people " 
when we give our unqualified sympathy to hordes of bandits, whose past 
records alone would be prima facie presumption of guilt in any court of 
justice in our country? Are "liberators" made of such material? For 
two generations have the old colleges and universities of Mexico been 
closed and new ones substituted ; yet to-day we find Mexico's best people 
sending their children, almost by stealth, to the few religious schools that 
have stolen back, and, when that is not possible, to schools of the same 
kind in Spain and the United States. Francisco Madero himself was a 
pupil of Mt. St. Mary's College in Maryland; Carranza a constant and 
friendly visitor to the College of the Jesuits in Saltillo. The man in whom 
both our Government and our people placed its highest hopes for peace 
in Mexico was the Christian De la Barra ; and next to him the Christian 
convert, Gamboa. 

•!• 

Susan Hale, in her history of Mexico, says : " It is evident that what 
is needed is good government, good religion and good education." But 
we have, alas ! by our own greed and our prejudice, made government a 
thing to be fought for by robbers ; of religion a thing to be held up to 
scorn and insult; of the old schools, that once were glorious, barracks 
and ruins. We listen and applaud when the " liberals " of every camp 
tell us that the Church is responsible for poverty, ignorance and lawless- 
ness ; but we do not listen to the Church which gave to Mexico all the 
civilization she possesses, when she makes this gentle plaint, over the 
noise of murder, debauchery and lust : You blame me for poverty, yet 
you took from me the endowments for my hospitals, my orphanages, my 
countless works of mercy. You blame me for ignorance, when you 
closed my schools, stole my colleges and suppressed my universities 
which first lit the torch of learning among this people. You say I have 
added nothing to science and art, but you destroyed the art I brought with 
me, burned my books and scattered the results of my labor for science 
to the four winds of heaven. You blame me for ignorance after forbid- 
ding me for fifty years to teach. You blame me for lawlessness, when you 
destroyed my missions among a peaceful and thriving Indian population, 
and gave, in my place to the people, the thirty pieces of silver with which 
you bribed them to murder their fellows. You took the cross out of their 
hands to replace it with a torch and a gun. Show me one good thing in 



74 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

Mexico I did not give you. Show me one genius for whom I was not 
responsible. Show me one step in advance I did not help you to take. 
Cut away from your country all that I put in it, and see what remains. 
You may thrust me out, exile my bishops, murder my priests, again steal 
my schools, desecrate my sanctuaries and my virgins, but you can not blot 
out history, you can not erase the mark I have left on you — not in a 
century of centuries. 

If the United States is to be the friend and sister of Mexico, to the 
advantage of both, our citizens must rid themselves of a multitude of 
inherited prejudices, and substitute a spirit of understanding for a spirit 
of greed. There is more to be had in Mexico than oil and mining con- 
cessions : there is the good will that makes such concessions a logical 
consequence of a desire for help and a manifestation of deep gratitude. 
I have no wish to condemn business enterprise, but it is poor business 
that depends for success on machine guns. If powder and ball are the 
things we want to dispose of to Mexico, the question arises : which 
country is the less civilized, the one that sells or the one that buys ? We 
scorn to learn the language of Mexico, yet we expect to talk to her 
people so that they will understand. Pardon me, but do they understand 
when we talk from the black mouths of cannon? 

Mexicans do need " good government," and we have the opportunity 
now of giving it to them, not by imposing our views upon them, not by 
taking away their independence, but by telling them fairly and honestly 
that we will help no government set up by thieves, nor any government 
that is not founded on the principles of equal justice to all. Mexico can 
not get along without a big brother yet; but a big brother who lets his 
little brother fall into a well to drown is a poor excuse for a brother 
at all. 

Yes, Mexico needs " good religion." She has the Mother Church of 
Christendom in her midst, but chained and bound by laws that were 
intended to kill her. But Mexico's history shows that she will accept no 
other religion. American Protestantism has tried for fifty years to sup- 
plant the Catholic Church, but has not succeeded in doing any more than 
the work of enlarging the number of atheists and indifferentists. These 
missions are making no friends for us, but rather causing resentment 
against us. Their very presence is taken as an insult by the enlightened 
people, who can not but think that we regard them as heathen. Unbind 
the Church of their Fathers, the Church of Las Casas ; give her again 
the right to teach and to preach ; let her build her missions anew with a 
guarantee that they shall stand, not as relics of past greatness, but as 
living, acting agencies for the uplift of the Indians and their advance to 
greater things. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 75 

Yes, Mexico needs " good education." Then make every educational 
work free, under democratic and wise laws. See that the teacher is not 
penalized, his work destroyed, and his endowments seized by rapacious 
banditti. Give help to every effort for the instruction of the masses. 
Follow Washington's advice to encourage the means of education. It 
works well with us; why should it be disregarded in Mexico? Would 
we in these United States think of confiscating the hundreds of millions 
of dollars invested in private educational endowments for the universi- 
ties of Harvard or Yale or Chicago or Princeton, because they are pri- 
vate and not state institutions; would we think of killing off the 
endowments of human devotion and self-sacrifice of Washington, George- 
town and Notre Dame, because they are religious institutions? Then 
why give approval by a pleased look or a smirking silence, when these 
same things are done in Mexico by bandits with American weapons in 
their hands? 

•J- 

Mexico lies prostrate to-day. Anarchy reigns. Religion is over half 
destroyed. Greed steals the very school books from the children. Capital 
is fleeing. Labor gladly grasps a gun, and works at killing for pay. 
Virgins put on mourning for the worse than death that has befallen them. 
The country lifts her head to look at us with eyes that are more than 
half reproachful, but, thank God, there is also hope in them. We have 
our opportunity, one that, taken now at the flood, leads on to better than 
fortune. All South America, the South America we want to win to our 
side, the South America we need, is watching us, to see if our good offices 
must be bought by gold, by the sacrifice of hallowed and holy traditions. 
This hour is the hour full of fate for us. Shall we grasp the full measure 
of its pregnant possibilities? 



The Speech of the Silent Man 

A REPLY TO MR. JOHN LIND 

When a silent man puts his thoughts into language, the world expects 
something. When that silent man happens to have been the Governor of 
a State and the trusted personal representative of the ruler of what we 
believe to be the greatest nation on earth, we expect something of tre- 
mendous importance. When that silent man, who had been a Governor, 
etc., has a wise face to match his silence, as becometh a University Regent, 
we expect, when he speaks, to shed new light on any question, of sufficient 
" pith and moment " to wring speech out of him. 

In all these things has Mr. John Lind disappointed us. The public has 
been devoured with curiosity regarding his report to the President on the 
Mexican crisis. Attempts have been made, even in Congress, to find out 
what the report contained ; btit the attempts failed. Mr. Lind has been 
importuned to speak, but he has spoken only on private occasions, or at 
semi-private banquets with all reporters barred. But at last Mr. Lind 
has given his views to the world. He has taken his time about it, pre- 
sumably so that it might be understood they were the result of deep 
study and thought. Months and months have elapsed since he returned 
from Mexico, and only now (December, 1914) has he made his views 
public. In The Bellman of December 5, and again in the same magazine of 
December 12, Mr. Lind tells what he thinks of Mexico and her people. 
I have read the articles, and after reading them have put them down with 
anything but a feeling of satisfaction. It would have been better for Mr. 
Lind to have maintained his dignified silence. " The mountain was in 
labor and produced a mouse." No, that is not exactly the case. The 
mouse was produced all right; but the mountain was only a mole hill, 
and the mole hill itself is now nothing more than a mirage. 

Mr. Lind's article quite naturally divides itself into two parts: one 
dealing with the historic side, and the other giving what might be called 
the personal side, because it gives Mr. Lind's own personal opinions upon 
the situation. I am going to take up both sides separately. 

THE HISTORICAL SIDE. 

The historical part of Mr. Lind's article is absolutely worthless ; first, 

because it is not Mr. Lind's at all, and, secondly, because it is not true. 

Most of it is taken, with only a half attempt at paraphrasing, from an 

article written by E. B. Tylor, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., for the Encyclopedia 

7§ 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 



77 



Britannica, and which was published in the ninth edition, A. D. 1888, 
Volume 16, pp. 210 to 213. Of course, there is absolutely no reason why 
Mr. Lind should not have consulted an Encyclopedia to verify his original 
research, or his own studies ; but it is absolutely puerile for a man who 
avowedly poses as an authority on Mexico, after having spent months in 
that country on one of the most important missions within the gift of the 
American Government, to take practically all his facts from an Encyclo- 
pedia, and even, in many cases, borrow the very language of the book 
itself. Any schoolboy can copy an article from an Encyclopedia; but if 
he attempted to hand in such an article, even paraphrased, to an exam- 
ining board, his youth could scarcely save him from censure. Mr. Lind is 
no youth. He is no schoolboy, but he evidently has lost none of the school- 
boy tricks. I select a few lines from Dr. Tylor and a few lines from Mr. 
Lind, to show the deadly parallel : 



Mr. Lind: 

" Below the king was a numerous and 
powerful class of nobles." 

" A rich and powerful merchant class." 

" Great estates were owned by the 
crown." 

" Slavery existed, but in a rather mild 
form. The children of slaves were born 
free." 

" There was a Supreme Court for the 
cognizance of law appeals, located in the 
palace, in the city of Mexico. There were 
inferior tribunals in the principal cities, 
over each of which a Supreme Judge 
presided. These judges held office for 
life, and could not be removed even by 
the king. Their decisions in criminal 
cases were final. Lands were set apart 
for the maintenance of these judicial 
officers. They appointed and supervised 
the actions of the subordinate magis- 
trates, and revised their judgments. In 
fact, nothing gives a higher idea of the 
elaborate civilization of Mexico than 
this judicial system, which culminated in 
a general court presided over by the 
king." 

" The laws and records of the court 
were set down in picture-writing." 

" The criminal code was very severe. 
Fraud, the removal of landmarks, and 
adultery, were punished by having the 
offender's head crushed between two 
stones, or cutting out the heart." 



Dr. Tylor: 

" Below the king was a numerous and 

powerful class of nobles." 
" A rich and powerful merchant class." 
" The greatest estates belonged to the 

king." 

" Other classes of slaves were mildly 
treated, and their children were born 
free." 

" The Supreme Courts of law formed 
part of the palace, and there were tri- 
bunals in the principal cities, over each of 
which presided a Supreme Judge, who 
was irremovable and whose criminal de- 
cisions not even the king might reverse. 
He appointed the lower judges and 
heard appeals from them. Lands were 
set apart for the maintenance of judges, 
and, indeed, nothing gives a higher idea 
of the elaborate civilization of Mexico 
than this judicial system, which culmi- 
nated in the general court and council of 
state, presided over by the king." 



" The laws and records of suits were 
set down in picture-writing." 

" The criminal laws were of extreme 
severity. Fraud, removing landmarks, 
adultery, etc., which differed as to 
whether the criminal had his heart cut 
out on the altar, his head crushed be- 
tween two stones, etc." 



The above are only a few selections. I could go on and make as many 
more ; but any reader who desires to see the deadly parallel for himself, 



78 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

need only read over the historical part of Mr. Lind's article and then Dr. 
Tylor's paper in the Britannica. How much of an authority Mr. John 
Lind is on the history of Mexico can now be judged very fairly. 

It is bad enough to engage in literary piracy, but to steal what is 
untrue is many times worse, and unforgivably stupid. Stealing diamonds 
is bad, but stealing paste diamonds, not knowing that they are paste, must 
be very unsatisfactory to the thief. That is about the position Mr. Lind 
is in. Dr. Edward B. Tylor was an Englishman, born in 1832. In 1856, 
or when he was twenty-four years of age, he went to Cuba, and, having 
met an ethnologist there, he proceeded to Mexico with him. He became 
interested in Mexico through that visit, and wrote a book, which he 
published in 1861. I take this information about Dr. -Tylor from the 
Britannica's latest edition. I merely wish the reader to know that Dr. 
Tylor was only twenty- four years of age when he went to Mexico, and 
that he lived at a period when he would naturally be influenced by the 
man who was, at that time, considered the great authority on Spanish- 
America — Prescott. Since Dr. Tylor's time Mr. Prescott's history, a 
great part of it, has been relegated by scientific men to where it belongs, 
to the shelves of delightful romance. Mr. Prescott used the stories of the 
Spanish conquerors of Mexico, their reports back to the court of Spain, 
for all they were worth. As romances they were worth a great deal, but 
as facts they were worth very little. It was Cortez' business to make the 
Spanish monarchs believe in the wonders of his conquest ; and the glowing 
imagination of some of the people with him helped to do the rest. 



Two men have thrown utter discredit upon Prescott's " history " — 
A. F. Bandelier and Charles F. Lummis. BandeHer devoted his work to 
the Indians of our own Southwest, Mexico and South America. Accord- 
ing to the Britannica, Bandelier made himself " the leading authority on 
the history of Arizona and New Mexico," and, " with F. H. Cushing and 
his successors, one of the leading authorities on prehistoric civilization." 
" Bandelier has shown the falsity of various historical myths, notably his 
conclusions respecting the Inca civilization of Peru." Mr. Bandelier, in 
a preface to Charles F. Lummis' " Spanish Pioneers," stands behind every 
word that Lummis writes, and Lummis himself has utterly destroyed the 
romances of Prescott. " That we have not given justice to the Spanish 
pioneers," says Mr. BandeHer, " is simply because we have been misled. 
They made a record unparalleled, but our text-books have not recognized 
that fact, though they no longer dispute it. Now, thanks to the new school 
of American history, we are coming to the truth, a truth which every 
manly American will be glad to know. I can only say that the estimates 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 79 

and statements embodied in this volume are strictly true ; and that I hold 
myself ready to defend them from the standpoint of historical science." 

The whole historic section of Mr. Lind's article, following Dr. Tylor's 
lead, is really an attempt to show how little the Spaniards did and hov/ 
much of a better civilization they destroyed. 

The books of Mr. Lummis on the " Spanish Pioneers " and on " The 
Awakening of a Nation" (Mexico) are eye-openers to those who desire 
to know the truth regarding the old civilization and the new. " In spite of 
our reasonable hostility to the Spanish blood," he says, " we must not give 
our eyes the lie." " To such as find the testimony of Humboldt ineffi- 
cient," says Mr. Lummis, " there could be no more useful reading than 
the laws of Spain as to the Aborigines — the highest-minded, most com- 
plete and most noble ' Indian policy ' ever framed by man." As an 
example of the romance in the statements which now pass as history 
concerning Mexico, both Lummis and Bandelier proved, from fifteen to 
twenty years ago, that the famous " columns of porphyry and jasper 
supporting marble balconies," which Dr. Tylor concedes " were piers 
carrying slabs," to be nothing more than adobe houses like the houses 
used by our own Pueblo Indians. 

But even Prescott did not swallow all the yarns of the Spanish con- 
querors ; but those that he did accept have, nine-tenths of them, gone to 
the scrap heap. What folly it is at its best, the idea that a people could 
have been highly civilized who resorted to frightful human sacrifices ! 
Eighty thousand prisoners of war were sacrificed by Montezuma at the 
dedication of one great temple, " until the gutters ran red with blood." 

But Mr. Lind thinks that " the Indian empire of Montezuma, which 
the Spaniards destroyed four hundred years ago, was in many respects 
as far advanced as some of the European states at that period. This, of 
course, is based on Prescott, who thinks that " the degree of civilization 
which they have reached, as inferred from their political institutions, may 
be considered, perhaps, not much short of that enjoyed by our Saxon 
ancestors under Alfred." But it is a long call from Alfred to the days 
of Ferdinand and Isabella. 

Dr. Tylor and Mr. Lind vary from Prescott when they make what the 
latter calls " itinerant traders," or, in our parlance, " peddlers," " a rich 
and powerful merchant class." Mr. Lind is evidently unacquainted with 
either Lummis, Bandelier, Enoch or Hale. Susan Hale's book on Mexico, 
though biased, yet finds a place in " The Stories of Nations," published by 
T. Fisher Unwyn of London. The author knew something of recent 
research. She concedes, with Bandelier and Lummis, that before Cortez. 
Mexico " was inhabited by intelligent races of men." But she also says : 



80 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

" Empires and palaces, luxury and splendor, fill the accounts of the 
Spaniards ; and imagination loves to adorn the halls of the Montezumas 
with the glories of an oriental tale. Later explorers, with the fatal 
penetration of our time, destroy the splendid vision, reducing the emperor 
to a chieftain, the glittering retinue to a horde of savages, the magnificent 
civilization, devoted to art, literature and luxury, reduced to a few 
handfuls of pitiful Indians, quarreling with one another for supremacy ; 
and sighs to think his sympathies may have been wasted on the sufferings 
of an Aztec sovereign, dethroned by the invading Spaniard." 

Susan Hale's only offered consolation is that " after brushing away 
the sparkling cobwebs of exaggerated reports, enough fact is left to build 
up a respectable case for the early races of Mexico," and that is all that 
can be done to-day. 

The truth of the matter is that Spanish civilization in Mexico was to 
early Aztec civilization as light was to darkness; and all that Mexico 
possesses to-day of civilization she received absolutely from the Spaniards. 
" Our partisan histories, even our Encyclopedias," says Lummis, " are 
either strangely silent or strangely biased. They do not seem to recog- 
nize the precedence of Spain, nor the fact that she made in America a 
record of heroism, of unparalleled exploration and colonization, never 
approached by any other nation anywhere. Long before the Saxon had 
raised so much as a hut in the new world, or penetrated a hundred miles 
from the coast, the Spanish pioneers had explored America from Kansas 
to Cape Horn, and from sea to sea; and had far inland a chain of 
Spanish cities five thousand miles long." 

How does this accord with the " bondage, the ignorance, the vice and 
the sloth " of the sixteenth century, according to Mr. Lind ? As to the 
cruelty of Spanish conquests, Mr. Lummis says that " they (the Span- 
iards) were far less cruel than the Saxon ones." The Spaniard never 
exterminated. He conquered the Aborigine and then converted and edu- 
cated him." 

I have before me a book by Professor Noll of the University of the 
South, biased, of course, as most such books are. But the professor is 
forced to concede this : " It may be frankly admitted that the influence 
of the religious Orders was, in the main, beneficial to the country 
throughout the sixteenth century. The archbishops and bishops of 
Mexico exercised great influence in the affairs of government. They were 
respected by the civil authorities and venerated by the natives. . . . 
The Jesuits, who arrived in the year 1572, true to the purposes of their 
Order, tried to foster learning in the new land, though with but limited 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 81 

success. Other religious Orders established and maintained admirably 
appointed hospitals and asylums in every large city." 

Enoch, an Englishman, whose prejudices are rather fairly distributed 
against both Mexico and the United States, frankly says : " The Mexican 
of to-day owes all he has — law, literature, art and social system, and 
refinements of law and religion — to Spain." 

I believe that any honest student of Mexican history can not but come 
to exactly the same conclusion; but it is not according to Mr. Lind's 
policy to say anything good of Spain. She must remain now and forever 
the oppressor of Mexico, the excuse for revolution, and the horrible 
example, to show the wisdom of the Lind advice, 

MR. lind's personal VIEWS. 

The reading of the section of Mr. Lind's article devoted to his per- 
sonal opinions is interesting, but not informing. He cites, as a horrible 
example of the oppression of the peon, that " the minimum fee of the 
Church for marriages, baptisms and ceremonies of the like character is 
ten pesos. No peon could accumulate or have so much wealth at one 
time. If he is ambitious to wed his wife in the Church, or to have his 
first-born baptized, the fee, with the expense of the fiesta, makes him a 
debtor for life." 

This can not apply to all peons, for, later on, Mr. Lind says that the 
northern peon is " able to get married in the Church, have his child bap- 
tized, to live in a decent house, and to educate his children ; and he does 
all these things." 

Now, if Mr. Lind had taken the trouble to find out the laws of the 
Church and the customs of Mexico, he would have had an opportunity to 
qualify his statements. It has, for example, been specifically laid down 
for the guidance of pastors that they must not demand a fee of any kind 
from the poor. According to the Church law, there is not a single person 
in all of Mexico who can not come to his pastor and, if he is poor, have 
every one of these ceremonies performed without any offering whatever. 
I, personally, know one pastor in Mexico who annually has had four hun- 
dred marriages without offerings of any kind. In other words, the same 
law applies in Mexico that applies in the United States ; and the same 
understanding of offerings, in connection with such ceremonies, applies 
in Mexico as applies in the Protestant churches of the United States. 
There is not a Protestant minister that I know of, or ever heard of, but 
expects a fee on the occasion of a marriage, and, I believe, also on the 
occasion of a funeral, if the people receiving his ministrations are able to 
give, it. How grievously the officiating clergyman would be afflicted if 
he found his envelope empty ! Why ? Because his fees are recognized as 
part of his living. It is the same in Mexico. But 10 pesos in Mexico 



82 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

does not mean $10 in this country. At present it means $2, and at the 
highest rate of exchange it means $5. The fiesta is the father's own 
business, and the Church has nothing to do with it. 

Would $5 put the average Mexican peon in debt all his lifetime? 
Mr. Lind surely does not think the American public is so credulous as to 
believe that. However, that abuses have occurred is very probable ; but 
when they did, those responsible were acting, not in accord with the law of 
the Church, but in direct contradiction to it. 

Then, too, Mr. Lind does not mention the fees of the state. To save 
the peon from " bondage " to the priest, the state decreed civil marriage. 
It is true that the fee is only about 50 cents if the marriage is per- 
formed in the office of the magistrate. But no Mexican peasant wants 
that. He wants the marriage at his house, and the state knows this. Then 
a carriage must be supplied for the magistrate, and two visits made, at a 
cost of 8 pesos per visit. So 16 pesos is what the civil officials exact for 
these marriages, which formerly the peon, by simply stating his poverty, 
could have had performed for nothing. 

The conditions under which the Church is supported in Mexico have 
also been passed over by Mr. Lind. There is no law that compels thje 
peon to give anything to the support of religion. In some places the 
people voluntarily make offerings of grain, according to the old Spanish 
law, which, by the way, is also an old French law, and still in vogue in 
parts of Canada. But in the greater part of Mexico the priests receive 
no salary and no offerings of any kind, except the voluntary offerings at 
marriages, baptisms and funerals. Mr. Lind would suppress all this in 
Mexico, but would not suppress it among his own people in the United 
States. As a married man, he presumably has made such offerings him- 
self ; but, to do away with all chance of the Church existing at all in 
Mexico, he censures such a practice in the neighboring republic. 

Mr. Lind thinks that the Spaniards came to gather wealth and extend 
the " authority and fanaticism of Spain " ; and they did it so well that 
they imposed that bondage " spiritually and politically." He concedes 
always that the English colonial policy was harsh and selfish, but was not 
as bad as the Spanish. He does not mention a great difference, which is that 
the Spanish bondage preserved the people and the English bondage anni- 
hilated them. 

But, in spite of all this, Mr. Lind has found great good in the Mexican 
people. He found them, for example, courteous and kind, grateful, 
peaceful, patriotic, not ignorant though ilHterate, progressive, skilful, not 
really lazy, with a charming family life, artistic and hospitable. It would 
be interesting to ask where they got these good traits. Did they persevere 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 83 

throughout the entire Spanish regime, or have they sprung up since? 
Historians tell us very plainly that the Spanish regime gave it to them; 
and, when you come to think it out, it was not such a bad regime that 
could leave such marks upon a conquered people. If Spain gave the 
Mexicans only " spiritual bondage and fanaticism," the " spiritual bondage 
and fanaticism " produced very wonderful results. Would it not, perhaps, 
be good for us if we had some spiritual bondage and fanaticism of that 
kind ? 

Among the " horrors " that the Spanish regime inflicted upon the 
Mexicans, Mr. Lind mentions the Inquisition. This is rather strange, for 
other historians tell us that the Inquisition amounted to very little in 
Mexico. Some of them even hint that it Vv^as a method used by the gov- 
ernment of keeping order ; and, what Mr. Lind does not seem to know, 
and which I state under the authority of Professor Noll, " the Indians 
were, by specific command, exempted from its operations." 

Of course, Mr. Lind makes an attempt to explain some of the virtues 
he found in the Mexicans. For example, that of politeness. He charges 
it to the tyranny of the upper classes, for class distinction, he says, always 
compels at least outward politeness. Yet, in another part of his article, he 
informs us that he can not " recall an instance among the thousands of 
people that I met and came into contact with, or in my walks about the 
city or on the country roads, where the slightest rudeness or disrespect 
was shown." Now, class distinctions make for politeness in the oppressed, 
but not in the tyrant ; but Mr. Lind found the politeness in everybody. 

It is much to be wondered at where Mr. Lind secured the following 
bit of information: " One of the first acts of the Spanish conqueror was 
to distribute the arable lands of the people among his lieutenants and have 
churches established." The reason I am wondering where he secured 
this information is because it is not true. The Spaniards distributed the 
settled lands among the Indians, retaining for themselves the mines and 
unsettled lands. The land which the Church afterward acquired was 
received as donations and bequests from individuals, and not from the 
State. It is very easy for Mr. Lind to verify this, and, in doing so, will 
l[ind another fly in his peculiar sort of ointment — where he says " a whole 
nation was made homeless." Natives at any time could take up land in 
Mexico, and can do so to this day. If Mr. Lind will take the trouble to 
consult Enoch's book on Mexico, published by T. Fisher Unwyn of 
London, he will find, on page 157, the following: " National lands have 
been set aside in vast areas ; and any inhabitant of the republic may 
' denounce ' or acquire a piece of such land, and retain it by paying an 
annual tax payment, the prices varying from 2 pesos, in the remote 
regions, to 20 or 30 pesos per hectare, equal to two and one-half acres, in 



84 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

the more settled states." In some cases this law may have been found 
worthless, but it is the law. 

As a matter of fact, Mr. Lind, in speaking of Morelos, speaks to his 
own discomfiture. He says that there all the land is owned by twenty- 
seven men. Well, at one time all of this land was parceled out to the 
people, who proceeded to sell it to the twenty-seven (if that is the correct 
number of proprietors) , and, having sold it and received the money, now 
they want it again. The question is, will the people remain proprietors 
when the land is given to them? I have heard prominent and influential 
Mexicans say that, if the land is again parceled out, there should be a law 
passed at the same time forbidding the peon to sell. 

Here is another statement that manifests either ignorance or a desire 
to slander. Speaking of the peon's wages, Mr. Lind says : " They are 
paid twenty-five centavos per day, and given a small measure (about a 
pint) of corn. They are permitted to keep a few chickens, and occasionally 
a goat or two ; but if they show the least inclination to increase their pos- 
sessions, their ambition is promptly curbed." As a matter of fact, the peon 
is given his house, enough land for himself to raise his garden truck, 
twenty-five centavos in money, and three litres of corn and a half litre of 
beans. He is not only permitted to keep a few chickens, but as many as he 
wishes; and also a pig. He also receives wood. Besides this, entirely 
away from his garden, he has another small piece of land, which is for 
his use ; and he may raise, as he does, corn or anything else on it. It must 
be remembered, too, that the three litres of corn and a half litre of beans, 
together with the land he has and the wood, he may use as he pleases ; and 
that all his chickens and pigs live on the hacienda. Of course, conditions 
are not alike all over Mexico, nor can any one exactly define what a " peon 
is ; but since Mr. Lind offers his statement to cover a general condition, he 
might as well be truthful. 

" The law of Mexico," Mr. Lind says, " makes it a crime for a person 
in the employ of another to leave service while in debt to the employer. 
Consequently, the great land owners take care that all their peons are in 
debt." What are the facts about this ? They are that the peon will not 
enter service without an advanced payment, which is called the " acomodo," 
which amounts to from fifteen to twenty dollars. The land owner is not 
at all anxious to give this, but the peon insists upon it. That binds him to 
work for a certain length of time, but as a matter of fact, he works as long 
as he likes and then he moves. Very seldom is the " acomodo " returned 
to the land owner. 

Mr. Lind seems to have very great affection for the Mexican of the 
North, and he correspondingly despises those of the South. To him the 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 85 

northern Mexican is the progressive Mexican, and the southern is the 
one sunk in ignorance and despair. The northern Mexican earns three 
to four pesos a day in the Texas cotton-fields, on the American railroads 
and in the mines, so " he has learned to read his own language, and in 
most cases, has picked up a little English," says Mr. Lind. 

This statement is just as untrue as the others. The greatest destitution 
among the Mexicans is in the North. The loosest morality among Mexi-i 
cans is in the North. Proof of this Mr. Lind can have by studying the 
Mexicans in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, who are all from the North. 
The most progressive Mexican is in the South. The State of Oaxaca has 
produced Juarez, Diaz, Pineda, Cervantes, and almost all the governmen- 
tal brains during the twenty years of Porfirio Diaz. The Oaxaca Indians 
desire education more than any Indian in the North. The South is the 
garden spot of Mexico. I wonder if Mr. Lind ever turned his enigmatic 
face to the South. It is true the Indians in the North have had a better 
chance — an opportunity to secure better pay, since there is more mining 
and manufacturing and railroading in the North; there is also better 
land. But, as a rnatter of fact, the South is in a much happier condition, 
and much less prone to revolutionary troubles. No American, who has 
read reports from Mexico, but knows that the North is the center of 
revolution, and that the South usually has to be stirred up to join in the 
blood-letting. A single exception might possibly be the State of Morelos ; 
but it is remarkable, too, as I stated in previous pages, that the revolution 
in Morelos, under Zapata, showed few of the anti-religious atrocities that 
accompanied the revolution in the North. 

Mr. Lind certainly is optimistic when he states that the northern Indian 
has learned " to read his own language, and in most cases, has picked up a 
little English." The truth is that the northern Indian does not want to get 
an education ; and that the southern Indian does. I would ask the reader 
to remember, in this connection, what I said about Oaxaca. I am not 
speaking on my own responsibility. I have secured my information from 
a gentleman who was born in Oaxaca, and who lives in the North, and 
who was engaged in social work in one of the large cities, but who has had 
experience in North, South and center. I shall be very glad, indeed, 
if Mr. Lind is interested, to give my informant's name. He is a Mexican 
with a European education, and has been a professor in his own country. 

Another queer statement of Mr. Lind is that which concerns the opera- 
tion of the national railroads. He says they were wholly operated by 
Americans, but that to-day the entire system, from division superinten- 
dents to trackmen, is in the hands of peons, who, a generation ago, had not 
heard steam puflf. " They do the engineering, superintend and manage the 



86 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

shops, construct cars, coaches and locomotives that would do credit to 
any shop on this side of the line." 

It is true, as Mr. Lind says, that " they are not all of the peon class." 
Neither the engineers, nor the conductors, nor the division superintendents, 
nor any one else except the laborers, are of the peon class. The fact is 
that Carranza's experiment was a failure, and that these positions are now 
open to the Americans, whenever they can get them to come {vide 
the daily papers, which reported about a month ago that the change had 
been made). The fact is that even when the Mexicans did run the rail- 
roads, it was the middle class and not the peon class that did the operating. 
Mr. Lind fails constantly to distinguish between the two classes. 



In the course of his article, the ex-Governor informs us that a Papal 
bull forbade any instruction in Mexico for two hundred years, except 
instruction in religion and politeness. Now, Mr. Lind will concede that 
the Catholic Church is rather a compact organization, and that Papal bulls 
are usually obeyed by the clergy. Will he kindly explain how it was pos- 
sible, then, to found the numberless colleges, universities and schools, espe- 
cially for the Indians, which were established in Mexico by the Spaniards. 
What Pope issued that bull ? What is the date of it ? Surely, Mr. Lind 
knows, and, if he does, he knows more than any authority on Mexico, or 
any historian of the Church I have ever met. 



But the pinnacle of loose statements is reached in the following : " The 
discipline and restraint shown by the victorious Constitutionalist armies 
and their chiefs were most creditable and encouraging." I am glad to 
know what encourages Mr. Lind. He is so quiet-appearing a man, so min- 
isterial-looking, so mild in manner and so silent, that I thought he would 
be encouraged by the sound of the sickle in the wheat or the hum of 
industry in the factory, or the scratching of a pen over paper, rather than 
by the sound of knives cutting throats, guns shooting the innocent, and 
the thunderous appeals to hatred that came from these victorious armies 
and their chiefs. Does Mr. Lind think the American people are fools? 
They know what has happened in Mexico. They know what the " vic- 
torious chiefs " have done. They know of the outrages and murders 
committed. They know that nothing short of the Reign of Terror in 
France has equaled, for " discipline and restraint," the awful work of his 
friends in Mexico. This statement from a man who represented the 
United States, or rather the President of the United States, and must have 
known everything that went on in Mexico, is one of the most horrible 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 87 

and blasphemous utterances that I have ever read. It takes the measure 
at once of John Lind. 

Of what use is it to go on further, picking out the things in his article 
which stamp him as not only incompetent, but absolutely ignorant, after 
every chance to enlighten himself. If these are the things he told the 
President of the'United States, my contention in previous pages, that the 
President was deceived, proves to be true. The President must have 
trusted Mr. Lind. Who would not trust so wise-looking a man? Bui; 
he trusted him to his own great injury. Mr. Lind was the President'^ 
eyes and ears in Mexico, but the eyes saw things that never were, and 
the ears heard things that are a tissue of falsehoods from beginning to 
end. No wonder we are in trouble over our Mexican policy ! No wonder 
that it stands as the one great failure and blot upon a government that 
meant well, and that intended to do things for Mexico's good. No wonder 
that it has raised an angry protest among sixteen million people in this 
country, and is daily bringing to their aid the enlightened among their 
fellow citizens. If this is what Mr. Lind learned, he had better go to 
school again. We did not need to send any one to Mexico to get false- 
hoods. We had access to the Encyclopedia Britannica for the history of 
Mexico, and we could have copied our impressions out of it just as Mr. 
Lind did. And as for the things that he reports of his personal knowl- 
edge, we have enough lie factories in the United States without paying 
John Lind to go to Mexico at the expense of the taxpayers and manufac- 
ture more lies. 

A THIRD PART. 

An extra natural division of Mr. Lind's article is his defense of the 
policy of President Wilson toward Mexico. I am not concerned in attack- 
ing President Wilson's policy. I have tried only to give the facts and let 
people judge for themselves. Moreover, I am in entire sympathy with the 
President's desire to avoid armed intervention in Mexico. I can go a step 
farther. I have frequently met and consulted with the archbishops 
and bishops of Mexico, and I know I speak their minds when I say 
that they do not want such intervention. They are patriotic Mexicans 
who fear for the independence of their beloved country, who dread 
the shedding of their countrymen's blood, and who prefer to suffer even 
death rather than see the foot of an invader step in enmity upon the soil 
of Mexico. So while as an American I do not want our own country 
plunged into a- war, as the representative of members of the Mexican 
hierarchy I do not want it for Mexico's sake. What the Mexican bishops 
want is religious liberty. What American Catholics want is the promise 
that a government which already has intervened in Mexican affairs to the 



88 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

extent of telling the Mexican people what they should not do, will inform 
one and all of the factions that the thing they must do, if they want recog-, 
nition by this nation, is to guarantee a true democracy to Mexico, by giv- 
ing its people what they have not had for fifty years — liberty of conscience. 
The President can do that. He ought to do it. He can do no less. 
We'll forget what is past, but the future, we are determined, shall not be 
marked by the John Lindisms of the past, by which I mean — the unpar- 
donable blunders of narrow-mindedness and prejudice. 

WHAT IS WRONG WITH MEXICO? 

Without egotism I think I can answer that question. Every one who 
knows Mexican history and something of the ccvndition of Mexico to-day, 
can answer it. 

Here is the answer : What is our President's endeavor in his Mexican 
policy ? To his honor and credit, let it be said that he is aiming at giving 
Mexico a lasting solution for her difficulties in the shape of a pure democ- 
racy. But no democracy can be built upon the foundation-stone of tyranny. 
If the President wishes to solve the Mexican problem, he must begin at 
the foundation ; for all semblance of law has vanished from that country. 
In the United States we believe that a foundation which does not guaran- 
tee rights of conscience is a wrong foundation. Our fathers who founded 
the republic were a unit on that point. They knew that no State can long 
survive as a tyranny. 

I think it is the general belief of the people of the United States that 
President Wilson intends to recognize no government in Mexico that he 
does not believe will give a lasting peace to the country. If he does not 
secure a pure democrary for Mexico now, whatever government he recog- 
nizes must be one in which he has confidence that it will at least prepare 
the people for it. If his policy aims at makeshifts, we are very much mis- 
taken about it. 

In order to get at the crux of the difficulty, it is necessary to know that 
since 1810 Mexico has been at war, civil or foreign, with but an interval 
of peace. In the final defeat of the Spaniards with Iturbide, in 1821, the 
last real stable government left Mexico. Since that time, one revolution 
has followed another. The dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz was the era of 
peace. But dissatisfaction was always there. Why? 

If Mr. Lind will take a glance at the two great political parties of Mex- 
ico, and the two great political parties of the United States, he will see 
where the difficulty lies, always remembering that Mexican democracy is 
a conceded failure, while that of the United States is a conceded success. 

During the progress of the war between Mexico and the United States, 
the first active attempt at anti-clericalism was made in Mexico. This 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 89 

attempt took the form of robbing the Church. I do not defend the condi- 
tion which made the Church something worth robbing. Personally, I 
think the Church is better off with little property, outside its religious 
houses, and its houses for charity and education, than it possibly could be 
with great wealth. But about robbery, there can be only one opinion. 

The wrong method was taken with the Church. Catholics resented it ; 
and out of their resentment on one side, and the desire for spoliation on 
the other, arose the two great political parties of Mexico — the Clerical 
and the Liberal. The first was defensive and the other offensive. The 
Clerical party feared spoliation less than the inevitable result confessed 
by the Liberals as their goal — the restriction of religious liberty. The 
events of the last year permit us to verify earlier impressions as to what 
the Liberals really aimed at. Economic and agrarian questions were only 
side issues. The great issue of Mexican politics was that of liberty of con- 
science. Little was said about it, for the Church could say little. She did 
not want to enter politics. But it is easy to understand other tyrannies 
with this basic injustice in the laws. 

The Mexican people have never heen permitted to vote on the question 
of religious liberty. It was never clearly put up to the suffrage of the 
nation. Every revolution was an appeal to arms, and not until Madero 
came was there even a partial attempt to find out the will of the people. 
Madero proclaimed a free election. The Clerical party was organized 
with his encouragement, although he was not a member of it. The result 
of the election, in spite of the fact that the Liberals did the counting of 
the votes, was really a verdict for religious liberty. Then revolution broke 
out again. Since in a fair battle of ballots, religious liberty would have 
won, the ballots were replaced by bullets, and the great question still 
remains open, and still has in it the certainty of future trouble. 



When our own nation was born, its founders settled the question of 
religious liberty by constitutional enactment. They guaranteed liberty of 
conscience ; and, as a consequence, it was taken out of politics, and every 
later attempt to make it a part of a political struggle was frowned down 
upon and defeated by the American people. The parties that fostered such 
attempts lie wrecked and ruined along the highway of American progress. 
As a consequence, our political divisions concern themselves about political 
and industrial questions. They all aim at the material upbuilding of the 
nation. The foundation-stone of our democracy, in the main, is justice; 
so we have prospered, and we live at peace with our neighbors. 

It is easy, then, to see the radical difference between the Mexican 
political situation and our own; and it is easy to note the consequence 



90 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

of each, to put a finger on the canker that is eating the heart out of 
Mexico, and to know what Hes at the root of its poHtical misfortunes. 
Mexico has a poHtical issue upon which there can be no compromise on the 
part of the majority of its people. No one can compromise on the ques- 
tion of his natural rights. One may be defeated for the time being, but 
never conquered. The question of religious liberty is too big for politics. 
It transcends all other questions — overshadows them, buries them. 
When men are sincere there can be no other thought on the matter. In 
Mexico the religious issue is persistent. Fair play can not be secured by 
arms. The " Liberals " will not yield until the Church is destroyed. 
They refuse to grant others the rights which they demand for them- 
selves ; so all questions which regard the material welfare of the nation 
are sidetracked. Mexico still suffers as she has suffered for fifty years. 

How can the Catholics of Mexico yield? They are not asking for 
rights which they refuse to grant to their neighbors. Are they wrong in 
their uncompromising attitude? They have already yielded in every 
non-essential. They do not ask the return of their old confiscated prop- 
erty. They do not ask a reunion of Church and State. They do not ask 
for special privileges. They simply ask for the essentials — recognition 
of their Church's right to exist, to preach, to teach, to administer the 
Sacraments, and to hold such property as is necessary for the endowment 
of her charities and her educational establishments. With her it is a 
fight for life, for liberty to perform her duties. She can not accept laws 
aimed at these rights, at the sanctity of her priesthood and at her freedom 
to do acts of charity. Immortal souls are at stake. There is and there 
can be no further compromise under such conditions. , 

On the other hand, there is no reason why the Church should be asked 
to compromise. What she demands is only what our President himself, 
with his high ideals, would say that a pure democracy gives her a natural 
right to demand. She has the right to exist. She has the right to min- 
ister, and the right to have and to hold what individual free men have 
consecrated to her service. 

For fifty years, upheld by sword and gun, the minority of Mexico 
has denied the majority its freedom of worship ; has interfered with the 
religious liberty of individuals ; has coined their meekness into gold. 
They have been doing this in the name of " democracy " ; so for fifty 
years there has been no peace in Mexico. Education has been neglected. 
Agrarian and economic sicknesses have cried out in vain for treatment. 
Treasuries of successive governments have been looted. Theft has been 
bold and open ; and now comes murder, more robbery, lust and sacrilege. 
Why? Because fundamentally the whole fabric of Mexican democracy 
is wrong. It was built on tyranny of the worst kind — tyranny over 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 91 

men's consciences. The foundation-stone is oppression of the people in 
the enjo)^ment of natural rights. You can not tinker with such a struc- 
ture. You can not improve it so that it will last, unless that false base is 
pulled out and replaced by justice full and free, by acknowledging the 
right of the individual to worship God as his conscience tells him to 
worship Him. 

That is the crux of the Mexican difficulty. Here is the thing that 
needs to be changed. If the United States is to help Mexico to peace and 
prosperity, the only means the United States has is to point out the funda- 
mental defect; and to insist, now that we have intervened in Mexican 
affairs, that the cause for future intervention, because of the certainty of 
future strife in Mexico, must be permanently removed. When the 
Catholics of the United States ask our Government to refuse recognition 
to any Mexican government which denies these basic repairs to the 
Mexican governmental structure, the Catholics of the United States are, 
at the same time, putting into the President's hands the power to insist 
upon something which will make his name a future benediction in Mexico : 
and which will make the American name honored and loved instead of 
hated and despised, as it is now. Every one in Mexico thinks that we 
have stirred up religious strife. The Constitutionalists have killed because 
they believed the shedding of the blood of priests and nuns would be 
approved in the United States. They do not stop to consider that Ameri- 
cans can not approve for Mexico what they hate in their own country. 

But is the Church responsible, at least partially, by holding possessions 
which stirred up the cupidity of men ? Even if it were true, that would 
be no extenuation of robbery. That the victim is rich does not excuse 
the thief ; for the crime does not lie with the robbed, but with the robber. 
Circumstances may influence the degree of guilt, but not the fact of the 
crime. Did the Church receive her goods unlawfully? No one claims 
that she did. The full indictment is that she possessed them. Is that 
sufficient reason for spoliation? If it is, why do we not enter into a career 
of spoliation ourselves? Why not rob, as I already pointed out, the 
endowments of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, Creighton, St. Louis, 
Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and the other imiversities of this country which 
are endowed? Their combined- endowments must certainly represent 
more than all the wealth that was ever held for the combined religious, 
charitable and educational works of the Church of Mexico. Why not rob 
Mr. Rockefeller, who individually has more money than a biased writer 
on Mexico, Professor Noll, charges that the whole Catholic Church pos- 
.sessed? But let that point go. It is fifty years since the Church in 
Mexico has had property. For the last fifty years she practically has had 
none. The Laws of Reform robbed her. She can not hold property 
except in the name of individuals, who may turn around and take it from 



92 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

her. When the Constitutionalists charged, as an excuse for their crimes, 
that the Church had given $20,000,000 to Huerta, they charged that the 
Church had given far more money than the combined efforts of all her 
bishops could have raised in ten years. What wealth she had, at any time, 
came through the self-sacrifice and labor of thousands of her religious 
men and women, who took for their part poverty, in order that religion 
might have the means to teach and minister. Recall to mind the stories 
told of the fabulous wealth of the Church in the Philippine Islands ; yet 
when the friar lands were purchased by the United States, they were 
found to be worth only $7,000,000. That $7,000,000 represented the 
savings of ten thousand missionaries, who had nothing for themselves 
but their food and clothes, and who died penniless through a period of 
three hundred years. Recently France confiscated the " millions " of the 
Church. When the spoil was counted up, the government had only 
$2,000,000. 

Yes, it may be urged, but the Church has spent much money to decorate 
her shrines. She has silver and gold and precious stones. That is very 
true, but she can not use such wealth. The silver and gold and the 
precious stones are the free offerings of the people, who look upon them 
as the possessions of their own particular towns or villages, and jealously 
guard them. For example, in 'Oaxaca there is a shrine rich in pearls. 
Every pearl came from a pearl fisherman ; and these very fishermen 
themselves to-day have hidden them away, in fear of the spoliation of 
their own gifts. What help is it to the Church of Mexico, in a financial 
way, that the shrines have been enriched by the people ? Why charge the 
Church with having abundant wealth when she has no more power to 
touch it than the State has — even less ? Some time ago an American 
millionaire said to me : " Why does not the Church in Milan sell the 
silver, gold and precious stones around the tomb of St. Charles and use 
the money for missionary and educational purposes?" I recalled to his 
remembrance the uniformed government officers standing all around the 
wonderful cathedral — government guards over wealth that is looked 
upon as the property of the nation, not of the Church. Thoughtless 
people affect to be scandalized at the riches of the Church, but in reality 
the Church owns none of these things. A few years ago it was suggested 
that the Pope present a work of art from the Vatican galleries to an 
Emperor. In the Italian Chamber of Deputies the Prime Minister, Crispi, 
arose and stated that the Pope could do no such thing ; that the Church 
was only the guardian of these works of art ; that they really belonged to 
the nation, and that the nation would take them when she desired a new 
guardian. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 93 

For fifty years the Church in Mexico has been poor, living on the offer- 
ings of her people, just as the different Protestant churches in America 
live on the offerings they receive. Now she is told by the Constitutionalists 
that she can not longer accept even these little offerings. They proclaim 
that she must no longer teach or preach, dry the tear of sorrow, bind up 
the wounds of suffering, protect her orphans, or sooth the pillow of the 
sick. The men who say this ask our nation to uphold them in their tyranny, 
ask us to put the stamp of our approval on what we know to be a crime 
against democracy — and John Lind helps them. 

We can have permanent peace in Mexico, but we can not have it on the 
basis outlined by Mr. Lind. We can have it only on the basis that every 
thoughtful American knows is the one and only and just basis. The 
religious issue must be taken out of politics; and then politics will be 
allowed to work for the industrial upbuilding of the country. I don't care 
who governs Mexico ; the Catholics of the United States don't care ; but 
what we do care about is hoWj whoever governs, will act in this matter of 
keeping fifteen million unarmed people from their religious and natural 
rights at the behest of a quarter of a million bandits, with guns supplied 
by English and American commercial interests, having no thought of any 
man's rights " so long as they can fill their dirty pockets." 

The persecutors may buy the silence or encouragement of every paper 
in the United States as they have already bought plenty of them ; they may 
pull the wool over the eyes of a dozen editors of religious weeklies, as 
they have already done with some ; they may land on every wire that con- 
nects with a secret lodge, and drag thousands unknowingly into the evil ; 
they may spend millions to " reach " the officials at Washington and keep 
them fed on lies ; they may play on the political " loyalty " of every office- 
seeker or officeholder in the nation; they may slander through the pens 
of a thousand Linds and abuse through the mouths of a million Hales and 
Sillimans ; but — they shall not with the silence of sixteen million Catholic 
Americans fasten anew on a devoted people the shackles of religious 
persecution. 



The Religious Question in Mexico. 

A REPLY TO SENOR I. C. ENRIQUEZ 

By 

Francis Clement Kelley. 



"So much has been written about the religious difficulties in Mexico, 
so many groundless accusations against the Constitutionalists have been 
made by the Catholic clergy, that I, as a faithful Catholic and Mexican 
revolutionist, feel it necessary to answer the numerous charges which are 
being unjustly heaped upon us. It is a lamentable fact that every one of 
our accusers, either wilfully or through sheer ignorance, is overloolzing 
the most important laws of the Mexican Constitution. They seem utterly 
ignorant of the history and the conditions of the country, its people and 
its aims, about which they are writing. Every one of them is hiding 
behind the cloak of religious bigotry, and in the name of Christianity and 
the Catholic religion tries to bring naught but sorrow to a people that is 
struggling for justice and independence." 

The paragraph above quoted contains the opening remarks of Sehor 
I. C. Enriquez in his pamphlet, " The ReHgious Question in Mexico, by a 
Mexican Catholic." Readers, however, will have to take the Senor's word 
for his Catholicity. That is all we have. No stronger evidence is pre- 
sented in his pamphlet, though there is considerable evidence that he 
treats his nominal religion with about the same respect as he treats the 
truth — which is not saying much for either. 

Senor Enriquez has taken the trouble to send a copy of his pamphlet 
to all the members of the Senate and the Congress of the United States, 
and to give it a wide circulation generally ; all of which indicates that his 
friends are becoming anxious about American public opinion, which is 
not at all surprising. 

The paragraph I have quoted from his opening is remarkable, in 
that it promises to show that the accusations made against the Mexican 
revolutionists, not only by American Catholic writers, but also by 
ex-President Roosevelt, are " groundless and unjust," in that it proposes 
to prove that these accusers are ignorant of the laws of the Mexican 
Constitution, and the history and present conditions of Mexico, etc. ; 
and in that it even proposes to vindicate the actions of the Constitution- 
alists. I call such an opening " remarkable," because of the magnitude of 

94 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 95 

the task to which it pledges its author. Not often does one meet so 
pretentious a program outlined for a pamphlet of just sixteen pages. My 
wonder in the beginning at the size of the Seiior's bite, was exceeded 
only by my amusement at the end when I saw that he could not chew it. 

The Constitutionalist Apologia, fathered by the Senor Enriquez, is 
the most wonderful collection of weightless words, proofless assertions, 
mirthless jokes, and profitless falsehoods with which I have had the mis- 
fortune to lose my time for many, many moons. The Sefior's task is 
preeminently one of excusing crime, for he does not take the trouble to 
offer any proof that the outrages of murder, sacrilege, arson, lust, destruc- 
tion, suppression of the press, robberies, lootings, etc., did not take place. 
He says they did not, and that is all. Then he at once proceeds to admit 
that they did, by attempting to excuse them. If they did not take place, 
why devote sixteen pages to the unnecessary task of an apology ? If they 
did take place, would it be possible with all the water in the Atlantic 
Ocean, or all the lies of the Constitutionalist lie factories, to blot them out ? 

Since, however, the Senor insists on getting before the American 
public, perhaps I had better gratify him still more by making his name 
and his task known to a much larger audience. I am led to do this, not 
only for the sake of publishing the truth in the United States, but also for 
a reason that concerns the Senor and his friends. They have been grossly 
deceived about the American people. They were told that Mr. Wilson 
and Mr. Bryan were bigots " who would be pleased with anything done 
against the Catholic Church." They were told that the Protestants of 
the United States would be delighted with any act of the Constitutional- 
ists to injure and hurt the same Church. They believed the numerous 
lying papers, tracts and booklets, translated into Spanish, and scattered 
among them to give them the idea that the Protestants of the United 
States had a mortal hatred for their Catholic brethren. They thought 
that Catholics here had no standing, no rights that they would dare to 
claim, no voice that could be heard ; and they even suspected that Catholic 
votes did not count. Now they have had their eyes open. I want to open 
them still wider. They have discovered that American Protestants, out- 
side of a few bigots whose convictions are like their spelling — badly 
mixed — at heart desire to be just and honest men and women. They have 
begun to suspect that neither the President nor the Secretary of State has 
been correctly pictured to them. They have found that, when the just 
indignation of American Catholics is aroused, it means business. They 
have even discovered that Masons in the United States and Masons in 
Mexico think differently. So, at this late hour, they come forward as 
" Mexican Catholics " to praise the " poor priests " of Mexico, to hail 
them as " liberators " ; but making " saving " distinctions, they attempt to 



96 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

throw blame upon the " high orders " of clergy, implying that these are 
foreigners, wealthy, rapacious, unpatriotic and cruel. With praises for 
some priests and curses for others, they would have the American Catholic 
forget that their pens, dipped in falsehood, have handles stained red with 
the blood on their fingers. 

But that will not do, Senor ; it will not do at all. We know the story 
of Mexico. We know what has been done there for over fifty years. 
We never knew it before. It took martyrs' blood to call our attention to 
it, and the martyr's blood has not been shed in vain. There are sixteen 
million Catholics in the United States ; and to the last man, woman and 
child, they have learned or will learn the history of Constitutionalist 
crimes. They are going to see that justice is done the poor people of 
Mexico. They are not going to falter in the fight. They will see it 
through. Make no mistake — they are aroused as never before. You 
will have religious liberty in Mexico, or there will be a reckoning ; and a 
reckoning that will not end until the sum is totaled up, and put to the 
discredit, in the books of civilization, of the proper account. It will pay 
you and your friends, Senor, to weigh carefully what follows. 

Your charges, the charges of a " faithful Mexican Catholic," as 
expressed in your pamphlet, may be summed up thus : 

First. — That the accusations made against those whom you represent 
are false. 

Second. — That the higher clergy of Mexico are the enemies of the 
people, are robbing them and standing out against their political rights, 
by intrigue and scheming. 

Third. — That these same higher clergy ignore and disobey your laws. 

Let us see how much truth there is in what you have to say. 

Enriquez. — " It is a lamentable fact that every one of our accusers, 
either wilfully or through sheer ignorance, is overlooking the most im- 
portant laws of the Mexican Constitution." 

Answer. — Your accusers have overlooked no laws in the Mexican 
Constitution. On the contrary, they have constantly pointed out the kind 
of laws which Revolutionists have put upon the statute books of a 
Republic masquerading under the name of a democracy. The demand of 
American Catholics is based upon a knowledge of these laws, which are 
subversive of the basic principles of democracy, are tyrannical and strike 
at the very root of the rights which are supposed to be guaranteed by the 
Mexican Constitution, liberty of conscience. Here is a summary of the 
Laws of Reform, which I have already published in The Book of Red 
AND Yellow, page 57 : 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 97 

" When the Revolution came, and with it the Laws of Reform of 
Benito Juarez, an end came also to what little freedom the Church had. 
She was despoiled of such possessions as had been left her. She was 
forbidden to teach, which means to open schools of any kind, except of 
theology. Her ministers even could not dress as clerics. The law of 
May 13, 1873, forbade any religious demonstration outside of a church 
building, and forbade clergymen or Sisters to dress in any way that would 
indicate their calling. The Constitution of 1857 interfered with personal 
liberty to the extent of forbidding anybody to enter a religious Order, 
and refused religious Orders a legal right to hold property. The law of 
July 12, 1859, suppressed religious Orders and religious societies, forbade 
the foundation of new congregations, ordered all books, manuscripts, 
prints and antiquities belonging to such Orders to be given up. The law 
of February 26 suppressed female communities. The law of July 12, 
1859, took away all property from the clergy ; but that of February 5, 
1 861, returned to the Church its parochial residences, bishops' houses, 
etc. Then September 25, 1873, saw a new law which forbade any religious 
institution to acquire property or the revenue derived from it. The law 
of December 14, 1874, struck at the right of the clergy to receive legacies. 
The law of July 31, 1859, took away from the clergy the right to manage 
or have anything to do with cemeteries. The law of February 2, 1861, 
took from the Church her hospitals and charitable institutions, as also 
did a law of February 28 of the same year. To make it more certain 
that the Church could not be charitable, the law of August 27, 1904, 
forbade clergymen to act as directors and administrators, or patrons of 
private charities, and extended this decree even to include those delegated 
by clergymen. It will clearly be seen that, under the Constitution and 
Laws of Reform, the clergy had little power left, and the Church little 
chance to uplift the people." 

These are the laws of Mexico which Mr. Enriquez says we have 
ignored. How do American citizens like them? How would they enjoy 
having such laws put in force against religion in the United States ? And 
these are the very laws, Mr. Enriquez informs us later on in his 
pamphlet, that the Carranzistas want enforced to the letter. Are these 
the things that are going to bring happiness " to a people that is struggling 
for justice and independence " ? 

Enriquez. — Who is this" man, who, for fear of divulging his name, 
signs himself "An American Citizen " f Why does he fear to make his 
name known f Is it because he had the audacity to attack President 
Wilson's policies, etc.? 

Answer. — I can not tell Mr. Enriquez who the gentleman is, or why 



98 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

he did not sign his name ; but I am signing my name. I can assure 
Mr. Enriquez that I do it with a full knowledge of the fact that the only 
answer thus far made to people who happened to disagree with the 
Constitutionalists, was a shower of bullets from a firing squad. Happily 
for me I am not in " Constitutionalist " territory ; but I am not ignoring 
the risks. Here, however, assassination is dangerous. I beg to state also 
that I am making no attack on President Wilson's policies ; but I am 
making an attack on looters and bandits, who, in the name of liberty and 
justice, have strangled every bit of freedom that exists in Mexico, and 
who know no more about justice than the ordinary mad dog. 

Enriquez. — Every one who knows anything at all is aware of the 
fact that Masonry in Mexico is nothing more than a' huge joke. 

Answer. — For which statement, Masons will be thankful to Mr. 
Enriquez. How about the bold demand made on the American Govern- 
ment by the Mexican Scottish Rite, to instantly evacuate Vera Cruz ? 

And what about the following press sheet, dated February 8, 191 5, 
sent out by the Mexican Constitutionalist Bureau, located in Suite 334, 
No. 17 Battery place, New York? 

" The Name of Huerta Crossed Out from the Books of Freemasonry." 
From El Pueblo, Vera Cruz, December 11, 1914. 

" He is considered unworthy of belonging to that league because he 
betrayed the Mexican people and allied himself with tHe clergy. 

" Victoriano Huerta, the accursed Judas, who, during many months, 
soiled the national territory with the most opprobrious dictatorship, and 
whose crimes without number have had no precedent in the history of 
our country, has just been crossed out of the Big Catalogue of Free- 
masonry, under the grave accusation and indictment of having betrayed 
the Mexican people. 

" The respectable Concordia Lodge, of the town of Jalapa, was the 
one who initiated this just expulsion, as will be seen by the following 
document : 

" ' To the Resp. : Gr. : Log. : United Mexican and Free Accepted 
Masons of the Or. : of Vera Cruz. 

'" M. : R. : M. : and VV. : HH. : 

" ' In an ordinary session, h'cld on the 24th inst., this respectable, 
worthy and courageous lodge arrived at the following agreement: 

" ' There having been found in the files of this respectable Lodge a 
Letter Patent issued by the Grand Lodge of the State of Vera Cruz of 



I 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 99 

Vree and Accepted Masons R. : E. : A.: and A.: under date of the 

24th of 1883, so that under No. 4 it should be effective in 

this Lodge, Concordia No. 17, in this Or. : of Vera Cruz, and where is 
inscribed as Venerable Master of same the M. : M. : Victoriano Huerta, 
the Grand Master informed the members and they unanimously agreed 
to cross out with red ink the name of the bad Mason, Victoriano Huerta, 
as unworthy of having his name appear in the Masonic Documents, and 
because of the understanding and alliance he made with the Catholic 
Clergy, and also for having betrayed the Mexican people. They also 
agreed to inform the Grand Lodge of Vera Cruz of this decision, request- 
ing it to make it known to all the grand lodges and regular corporations 
in the Republic, as well as to all the foreign corporations with whom you 
are on friendly terms. 

" ' In favoring us with information, in the understanding that the 
laws of the fraternity should be unconditionally obeyed, crossing forever 
out of the Big Catalogue of Freemasonry, the ex-Mason Victoriano 
Huerta, we feel sure that all our brothers will approve the inflexibility we 
have brought to bear in this case, with the idea of preserving the sound- 
ness of the order and purity of Freemasonry.' " 

The Grand Master: 
i Marcelino Sanchez. 

The Secretary: 

' N. Nevramont. 

From this it appears that General Huerta was guilty of two capital 
crimes : One, the first and most important, of having been a Catholic, 
which every one knows is what is meant by an " alliance with the Catholic 
clergy " ; the other, secondary, of " having betrayed the Mexican people." 
To the eyes of Latin Masonry the first is the " crime " most deserving of 
punishment — the unforgivable sin. 

If " every one who knows anything at all is aware of the fact that 
Masonry in Mexico is nothing more than a huge joke," why pass the 
action of the " huge joke " on to the press of the United States, as some- 
thing of such great importance to the Constitutionalist cause, as to justify 
a prayer to all American editors, to " kindly use this matter in the bulle- 
tin as liberally as your space will permit " ? And why, if Mexican 
Masonry does not concern itself with religion and politics, as others 
would have us believe, should General Huerta be expelled for an " alli- 
ance he made with the Catholic Clergy " ? It will enlighten the members 
of the craft in these United States, in England, Canada and the British 
Islands, who still believe in God and religion, to know that the Catholic 
Church has here the unmistakable proof of what it has long pointed out 



100 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

to them, the fact that Latin-Masonry looks upon " alliance with the Cath- 
olic Clergy," as full justification for expulsion and hatred, and worthy 
of approval as " preserving the soundness of the order and purity of 
Freemasonry." 

" I thank thee, Roderic, for the word " ; 
It nerves my heart; it steels my " — pen, 

but the religious Masons of English-speaking nations will " thank thee " 
more, and see still greater wisdom of the policy they claim to have 
adopted of not being on " friendly terms " with Latin-Masons. 

Enriquez. — // the men who plead the cause of the oppressed Mex- 
ican Clergy are to he taken at their word, it would seem that the whole 
Mexican nation is composed of inconsiderate brutes and beasts. 

Answer. — The overwhelming majority of the Mexican nation is 
composed of good, pious and peaceful people, out of whose hands a 
minority of " inconsiderate brutes and beasts " have taken all arms, all 
money, a free press, the right to vote, the right to talk, the right to prac- 
tice their religion ; in fact, all rights to which any free people are entitled. 

Enriquez. — They would like to create the impression that murder 
and rapine are rampant in that country, and that the main attacks are 
directed against the Catholic Clergy. 

Answer. — It seems that it has been easy to create the impression. On 
page 10 of The Book of Red and Yellow, and following for a number 
of pages, is the whole story, giving dates, names of cities, names of 
persons, in fact, the fullest information that can be squeezed within the 
pages of a pamphlet for general circulation. // the statements are 
"ridiculous," why not answer them? The Constitutionalists are on trial 
before the court of American public opinion, for they are asking the 
United States to recognize them as the legitimate rulers of Mexico. They 
must bring before the court something more than mere statements. The 
evidence is in on the one side, and Senor Enriquez in his rebuttal presents 
none. There are lawyers enough in the Senate and Congress of the 
United States to know how to treat a case unsupported by evidence. 

Enriquez. — The Urst thing our soldiers did when we entered a city 
was to seek out the houses of worship and offer our prayers in thanks to 
Him Who brought us victory. 

Answer. — Undoubtedly, there is a grain of humor in the Senor 
Enriquez. However, he is right in part, for certainly his friends did go 
to the churches! When they got there they shot at the statues ; stole the 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 101 

pictures and sent them to America for sale ; desecrated the sanctuaries ; 
expelled such priests as had no money ; took out the confessionals and 
burned them in the public squares ; fed the Blessed Sacrament to horses ; 
did unmentionably vile things with the sacred vessels ; used the vest- 
ments for horse blankets ; and then, in order to make sure that their 
" thanks " would be properly offered to the God Who " gave them 
victory," shot some of the priests. Yes, there is no doubt that the Seiior 
Enriquez is right: " The first thing they did was to go to the houses of 
worship." 

Enriquez. — To understand the true causes and reasons of dissension 
and strife between the people and certain members of the High Catholic 
Clergy, one must go back to the first struggles of Mexico against the 
Spanish domination. It is the same struggle. 

Answer. — It is the same struggle ? Yet for over fifty years the 
Spaniards have been out of Mexico. The Church has had no legal 
existence in Mexico. There has been no union of Church and State in 
Mexico. Clergymen have been forbiddenJjy law even to wear a clerical 
collar on the streets of Mexico. Bishops have been arrested for blessing 
a cemetery in Mexico, even for attempting to lay a cornerstone;, for 
presiding over a gathering of children at Christmas time to make presents 
to the little ones of Mexico. The Church has not been allowed to receive 
a bequest in Mexico. She has not been allowed to hold property in her 
own name in Mexico. Inheritance taxes aimed at her confiscate any 
property she may have in the names of private individuals, by three trans- 
fers in Mexico. Yet it is the same struggle? For over fifty years, the 
Church has been bound hand and foot; and the Constitutionalists assert 
that, shackled and manacled, she still is such a power that a new revolu- 
tion is necessary to prevent her from cutting liberty's throat. This is one 
of the mirthless jokes of the Sefior Enriquez. 

Enriquez. — The rulers of Spain left, but many of their harmful 
institutions stayed behind, and it is these institutions, which have been 
slowly devouring the minds of the Mexican people, which usurped all 
their rights, and keep them in ignorance, that we Mexicans are still 
fighting and struggling against. 

Answer. — In order to struggle intelligently against these institutions 
left by the Spaniards, you close schools, destroy colleges, loot laboratories, 
scatter manuscripts to the four winds of heaven, sell valuable books and 
typewriters for a few cents, and throw thousands of Mexican children 
out of the one chance they had to get an education. Our plan in the 
United States is to encourage every means of educating the people. The 



102 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

Mexican Constitutionalist plan is to discourage it. Spanish institutions? 
Enoch, an English Protestant, says : " The Mexican of to-day owes all 
he has — law, literature, art and social system, and refinements of law 
and religion — to Spain." 

Enriquez. — To say that we are nothing short of murderers, that we 
wantonly persecute the priests and the nuns, is to slander the Mexican 
nation. 

Anszver. — Pardon me, let us make a distinction. To say that the 
Carranzista bandits wantonly persecuted the priests and nuns, is not 
indicting the Mexican nation ; for there are sixteen million people in 
Mexico who want peace and order, law and religion, and there are not 
more than two hundred thousand who have been deceived by the self- 
seekers who hired blinded fools to kill, and paid them with liberty to 
commit every lustful crime in the calendar. Why are the poor women of 
Torreon wearing black? 

Enriquez. — Does ^any one believe that a nation zvhich attained its 
freedom by the aid of its priests, would, a few years later, turn against 



Answer. — They have not turned against them. On the contrary, the 
people want them. See in The Book of Red and Yellow the Story of 
Yucatan, page 44, and the pitiful appeal made to the Carranzista governor 
by the women of the State, not to expel their priests. What about the 
rising of the people in Morelia? (vide page 54). 

Enriquez. — But the priests who fought for the liberty of the Mex- 
ican peons are not the high Church dignitaries of to-day. 

Answer. — This is to intimate, of course, that the high Church digni- 
taries of to-day are Spaniards ; but there is not a single Spaniard holding 
a Bishop's See in Mexico. Every single bishop in Mexico is a Mexican. 
Every one of them is a patriotic Mexican ; but they have what may be 
considered a weakness in the Sehor Enriquez's eyes — a love for law and 
order. They want a country, not a slaughter-house. They prefer ballots 
to bullets. They want liberty of conscience and freedom of worship, and 
a chance to educate their people ; all of which has been denied for over 
fifty years. 

Enriquez. — Those who failed to obey, or shozved the least sign of 
disobedience, were punished, with the well-known Spanish Inquisition, 
the tortures of hell. 

Answer. — Strange statement from one who reproaches us with 
ignorance of Mexico's history. The Mexicans were, by special royal 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 103 

decree, exempt from the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, which was a state 
institution in Mexico, as it was in Spain. 

Enriquez. — By such means (land grants, inheritances, etc.), the 
Church and certain high dignitaries of the Church, became the Supreme 
Power of Mexico. 

Answer. — If that is true, why was. it that Bishop Las Casas had to 
fight the State in order to secure the rights of the Indians ? Why was the 
Church obliged to constantly barter with Spain for the liberties of the 
natives ? 

Enriquez. — It was to these poor native priests that the oppressed 
and down-trodden Mexicans went in time of dire need. 

Answer. — Among the hundreds of exiles here and in Cuba, two- 
thirds are the same poor priests, some Indian priests. We had to find 
bread for them to eat and clothes to wear. I know how much wealth 
they possessed, for I saw and spoke to them. Senor Enriquez prints a 
letter which, he says, was written by the Archbishop of Mexico. That 
letter states that the salary of the Archbishop, himself, was 750 pesos a 
month, which means $325 in our money. With that he had to maintain 
his entire establishment. Now, the Archbishop of Mexico is the highest 
dignitary in the Mexican Church; so for the food, clothing, servants, 
household expenses and charities of the highest of the high Catholic 
Clergy there was $325 a month. By the way, did the Sefior Enriquez ever 
hold a public office in Mexico? If he did, how much salary did he get? 
According to the same letter, Canons of the Cathedral of Mexico received 
120 pesos a month, which is $60 of our money. The choir chaplains got 
from thirty to forty dollars, which is from -fifteen to twenty dollars a 
month in our money. These " high clergy " in Mexico certainly are living 
in luxury and robbing the people. If an average were struck of the gifts 
to the Church by the Mexican peon, it would show less than twenty cents 
per capita per year. This is fine robbery. 

Enriquez. — (Quoting from another) "Indeed, a careful estimate of 
the revenue of the Church, just previous to the War of Independence, 
reveals the enormous figure of $50,000,000 a year." 

Answer. — Yet Professor Noll, very prejudiced and anti-Catholic, 
estimates it about $90,000,000 in capital. There is a big difference 
between a capital of ninety million and a revenue of fifty million annually. 
In order to get this properly before people who think, let them estimate 
the revenue of, say, the Episcopal Church in the United States. Make 
as conservative an estimate as you please of the revenue of its missionary 
societies — home, foreign and diocesan — its schools, colleges, universi- 



104 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

ties, churches, pension funds, endowments of all kinds. Then stir in the 
fact that there are about fifteen million Mexican Catholics, to less than 
one million American Episcopalians, and serve hot. 

Is it a horrible crime for a clergyman to seek the means of livelihood ? 
Why not condemn the twelve Apostles ? As long as there is a dollar not 
yet sent to the banks of El Paso, San Antonio, New York and Paris, 
against the great day of the exodus, the Constitutionalists have a bone 
to pick with the clergy. But are the clergy of Mexico rich? I happen to 
know that the Constitutionalists secured the private papers of the bishops, 
copies of their last wills and testaments, the diocesan records of each, and 
the Chancery ledgers. They must know, then, all about the wealth of 
the clergy of Mexico. Then, why content themselves with assertions 
when it would be so easy to publish the facts and proofs ? " There's a 
reason." The books and records will not bear out the Constitutionalist 
assertions. 

Enriquez. — The Church had become such a powerful force in the 
political life, due to its enormous possessions, that it could change the 
government any time it wished to do so. 

Answer. — How? By votes? If the high Church dignitaries could 
change the government any time they wished to do so in that way, the 
people could not have been against them. As Mexican citizens, the high 
Church dignitaries would have had the right to take the same interest in 
politics that any other citizen takes ; and it is up to the people to judge. 
If they judged that it was time to change a government, is not that within 
their democratic rights ? Where is your complaint ? As a matter of fact, 
however, since there were no such things as honest elections, by what 
other means could the bishops change the government ? By revolutions ? 
When did they rebel? Who led the revolutions? Who supplied the 
money ? Hand us out the facts ; that's what we are after. Or, if these 
high Church dignitaries could change the government when they wished, 
inform us why they did not change the Laws of Reform. Would they 
have kept these oppressive laws over themselves for fifty years, when 
they could have changed them by the simple operation of changing the 
government? Is your humor again getting the better of you, mi estimable 
Senorf 

Enriquez. — The Revolutionists devoted much of the new Constitu- 
tion to the elimination and the divorce of the Church from the State. 

Answer. — Let me see, did not the Sefior say that the present Revolu- 
tion of Carranza is the " same struggle " as that of the Revolution against 



THE BOOK OF ^ RED AND YELLOW 105 

Spain ; and that the Constitutionalists are trying to separate Church and 
State nowf But they were separated years ago. Vat iss ? 

Enriquez. — Of late much has been written about the ignorance and 
immorality prevalent among the poor classes of the Mexican populace. 
It is said that a large majority of them totally disregard the marriage 
ceremony and live in open violation of the sacraments of marriage . . . 
An investigation has proven that the price for marriage sacraments, 
instituted by the high Catholic Clergy, is so unreasonably high, that it is 
almost impossible for the poor to meet it. 

The answer to part of this statement comes from a most unexpected 
source. I take the following from the editorial columns of The Church- 
man (Protestant Episcopal), of February 6, 191 5 : 

" Mr. William Watson, who has lived for nearly eight years in Mexico 
in some of its best-known centers of population, uses vigorous language 
in criticising the statements regarding the religious condition of Mexico 
that appear in the American press. He does not agree with those who 
ascribe the present revolution to religious causes. While the uprising is 
supposedly conducted for the benefit of the unpropertied class, the peon, 
it seems strange, he says, that their churches suffer just as much from 
robbery and outrage as the churches of the rich. Dealing with the ques- 
tion of ecclesiastical fees, Mr. Watson finds much exaggeration in recent 
reports. In the places where he has lived, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guadalajara 
and Mexico City, baptisms cost from 33 cents to 69 cents; it has been 
asserted that they cost $5. Marriage fees are from $2.50 to $3 ; requiems 
cost 50 cents; special prayers, 5 cents; confirmation, 15 cents; con- 
fessions and communions cost nothing. ' Once a year in all these places 
mission priests go around holding missions. During the missions bap- 
tisms and marriages are gratis, although sometimes 50 centavos is asked 
for a marriage during a mission.' When it is also taken into consideration 
that the Roman Church has no ' envelope system ' for its support, but 
depends upon these methods for collecting from the poor people, it will 
be seen that the peon contributes but little to the support of the Church, a 
fact patent to all who visit their little shrines and see their priests. The 
Roman Church has also a practice of asking for Diezmos, or the Jewish 
tenth. But this does not touch the peon, who has no land or money. The 
Diezmo is given on New Year's Eve. People with money are always 
charged according to their ability to pay. It is commonly reported that 
the Roman Church is responsible for the ignorance of the people. This 
is not true, either. In Mexico City there are many fine schools controlled 
by the Church, and there are not more than three or four decent buildings 
built by the State for school purposes. The Church has schools because 



106 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

the public schools do not begin to make provision for the children. Over 
fifty years ago, Juarez robbed the Church of their all in order to benefit 
the people, just as the present warring factions are doing. And just as 
the peons did not benefit by the Juarez theft, neither will they benefit by 
it now. Let us be honest about the Roman Church, even if we do not 
love it." 

Mr. Watson is certainly honest about the Church that he does not love, 
I would change only a word of his letter — the word "" cost." There is no 
" cost." The Church permits offerings on the occasion of marriages, 
baptisms, etc. " Cost " implies that a price is put on a spiritual benefit. 
As a matter of fact, the offering is not required from those who state 
that they are unable to make it. In many parts of Latin- America the 
clergy have no other means of support apart from these offerings. An 
offering is not even permitted on the occasion of confession. 

As to the assertion that many Mexican men and women live together, 
without the marriage ceremony ; I do not doubt but that Mexico has its 
share of immorality. That is not to be wondered at, since the State has 
been striving for half a century to break down the religious life of the 
people. What is to be wondered at is the Carranza remedy. That 
remedy is outlined in a decree published by the " First Chief," quite 
recently. His plan to prevent the lower classes of Mexicans from living 
in open violation of the sacrament of marriage, is to legalize this sort of 
prostitution by allowing divorce by mutual consent. He figures, I sup- 
pose, that there will be a great many more ceremonies, every couple con^ 
tributing from ten to fifty during a lifetime ; since, each three years, the 
decree permits the married pair to separate and each to select a new con^ 
sort. Now, in Mexico, as is explained in The Book of Red and Yellow, 
people like to have the marriage ceremony at their houses. That costs 
sixteen pesos, plus the price of the two carriage trips to bring the 
civil official to the two ceremonies. The Church expects an offering from 
those who are able to give it, but nothing from the poor. The civil official 
must have his carriages and fees. The Constitutionalist remedy will be 
a fine thing for the civil officials, since the Church is not to be permitted 
to solemnize marriages. All fees are to be thrown into the hands of the 
officers of the State. This is a method of increasing the revenue of office- 
holders, which possibly did not occur to our own politicians. Surely, 
Senor Carranza deserves credit for pointing out a chance we overlooked. 

Enriquez. — But the greatest tragedy of the Catholic Church in Mex- 
ico is that it is a house very much divided against itself. It possesses na 
unity of purpose; it has no honest desire to uplift, to educate and allevi- 
ate the needs and sorrows of the masses. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 107 

Answer. — This will certainly be news to the great number of intelli- 
gent Americans, who think that the Catholic Church has a considerable 
unity of purpose and is anything but divided against itself. In fact, it 
is one institution in the world which is known to have the strongest unity 
of purpose, and which will tolerate no serious division within. However,, 
it would be rather hard for the Church to possess any more than an 
" honest desire to educate and alleviate the needs and sorrows of the 
masses " in Mexico, because if it tried to carry such an honest desire into 
practice, it would find that, in the eyes of the Mexican laws, it does not. 
exist; that it can not build a hospital, a school, an orphanage, a social 
center, or even a lazaretto, because it has no right under the law to do so. 
It has no legal right to be charitable, to teach, to nurse the sick, to help 
the down-trodden, or even to dry the tear of sorrow. When it attempts, 
these things, it has to do them against the laws, as Mr. Enriquez acknowl- 
edges. In the beginning of his pamphlet, Mr. Enriquez complains that 
the Church has thus violated the law. Now, he complains that she won't 
violate it. What does he really want the Church to do ? 

Enriquez. — The true condition of the Catholic Church is that it is- 
composed of wealthy, foreign, high clergymen and of po.or priests who- 
are native Mexicans and Indians. 

Answer. — Who are the high dignitaries of the Church of Mexico? 
First, Archbishops — but all are Mexicans ; second. Bishops — all Mex- 
icans ; third, Vicar-Generals — all Mexicans ; fourth, Canons — nine- 
tenths Mexicans. (I do not know of a single foreigner among the 
Canons.) These are the dignitaries. Now who are the lesser clergymen ? 
Parish priests of the cities — nine-tenths Mexicans ; country pastors — 
nine-tenths Mexicans ; assistant priests — nearly all Mexicans, but with a 
good percentage of Spaniards. Mark you, the largest percentage of for- 
eign clergy is found among the assistants. But where there are many 
Spanish pastors, as in sections of Yucatan, they are there only because 
they had to be called in as helpers. There was a scarcity of native priests. 
That is why, too, there are Spaniards among the religious Orders of 
teachers. It is the policy of the Church in Mexico, as in every country, 
to secure a native clergy. 

Enriquez. — They (the clergy) intrigue, they scheme. They are the 
friends of the reactionary forces; they kow-towed with Diaz when he 
was in power and used Huerta and his henchman, Dr. Urrutia, when they 
reigned supreme. 

Answer. — And yet Diaz promulgated some of the laws which the 
" patriotic " Constitutionalists love, because these laws oppressed the 
Church ; and Huerta, though he was only a short time President, left one 



108 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

as a souvenir of his dictatorship. Does it ever occur to Seiior Enriquez 
that the laws of the Church require Catholics to obey the civil power and 
respect the civil authority ? By what right would the Church or its " high 
dignitaries " take it upon themselves to decide that they should disobey 
a President accepted by the people? Diaz was President, recognized by 
Mexico, recognized by the United States, recognized by every government 
in the world. Huerta was President of Mexico, recognized by other 
governments, though not by the United States ; but he succeeded to 
power in obedience to all the forms of Mexican law. If the Church had 
rebelled against him, we would have had Sefior Enriquez and others of 
his kind pointing out this fact with great triumph. The Church did not 
rebel. The Church was peaceful and accepted the government that was 
over its people, as it always does. Now, it is charged with treason because 
it did the one thing that it could do without becoming treasonable. Again 
I ask what does Sefior Enriquez want the Church to do ? 

As to scheming, what was the Church scheming about? To change 
the laws so as to give her some liberty? She could claim a right to do 
that under a democracy. Does the gentleman forget that Mexico was 
pretending to be a democracy ? 

Enriquez. — In fact, they were the enemies, for they always upheld 
the benighted forces of Mexico. 

Answer. — Who were these benighted forces? Everybody who dis- 
agreed with the Constitutionalists? Everybody who thought that a pure 
democracy ought to grant liberty of worship, freedom of education, and 
the common ordinary natural rights of citizenship? The trouble is that 
Sefior Enriquez and his kind have settled in their own minds what they 
want; and, looking back over the history of Mexico, they coolly dub as 
traitors everybody who even suggested that what they want was not the 
best thing for the country. A democracy is " of the people, for the people 
and by the people." But in Mexico any one who holds contrary opinions 
to the small circle of revolutionary " patriots " must be considered as 
having no rights which their opponents are obliged to respect. This is 
why Mexico settles her troubles with bullets instead of ballots. Verily, 
the path Of the politician in Mexico is strewn with thorns, and there is 
danger in his ways. 

Enriquez. — The shameless manner in which the high Catholic clergy 
forsook their religious offices and dabbled in politics is illustrated by the 
numerous letters which were left behind by Dr. Aureliano Urrutia, 
Minister of Interior in the Huerta cabinet. , 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 109 

Answer. — Senor Enriquez has added six letters to prove this asser- 
tion — six specially selected. We commend a study of these letters to 
every one interested. 

The first was written by Archbishop Gillow, evidently a personal 
friend of the Minister, for he addresses him : " Esteemed Sir and 
Friend." He speaks of certain disturbers who were molesting the author- 
ities, and interfering with public peace. He commends one of the gov- 
ernors, who worked for the well-being of his district. He speaks of false 
accusations being made by disturbers against this governor. He com- 
mends a Judge of the Primary Court of Claims, who is trying to do his 
duty. He offers his letter for the purpose, as he says, of maintaining 
" order and peace in this district," and he thanks the Minister in advance 
for whatever he may deem fit to do in the interests of honest citizens. 

This certainly is an " incriminating " letter, and clearly proves that 
the Archbishop was interested in peace and order ; therefore, a splendid 
example of a " traitor " according to Constitutionalist ideas of what a 
traitor is. 

The next letter is from the Archbishop of Mexico City to the same 
Minister. It sets forth, that under the " beneficent " laws of Mexico, he 
was robbed of his home, which was taken over for governmental offices. 
He asks that it be restored to him. He suggests that some restitution 
might be made also for the cash, sacred vases, such as chalices, shrines, 
lamps, articles of silver, jewels, all stolen from the Cathedral; also for 
the Seminary building next door, which was likewise taken, and for the 
houses of his chaplains. He speaks of the poor financial condition of his 
diocese as a consequence of this robbery ; and he asks for restitution 
at least in part. Sehor Enriquez calls these " alleged damages." So it is 
not a sin to steal from an Archbishop. Mexican " professionals " will 
take note how they may steal without danger. 

This Archbishop is a horrible example of a " traitor " ; the man 
actually wants to get back the things he was robbed of. But there is a 
mitigating circumstance in his favor ; he is not a full traitor because he 
would be satisfied with a part restitution. 

The third letter is from the Archbishop of Puebla. I do not know 
what it is about, because, as a matter of fact, it does not say anything. 

The fourth is from Archbishop Gillow again. It refers to the fact that 
the Archbishop, with a lawyer and an engineer, had been appointed by 
General Diaz " to study and report " on some proposed concessions for an 
international and interoceanic railway. It appears that the Archbishop 
did not agree with his colleagues, because he did not want to have the 



no THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

State give up so much money to the concessionaries. He urges that time 
has proven the correctness of his ideas, and points out two Hnes, which, 
in his opinion, are of greater importance to Mexico. He urges the neces- 
sity of completing, as soon as possible, the railroad from Mexico to 
Tehuantepec, via Puebla and Oaxaca. He mentions that the Isthmus of 
Tehuantepec, using Baron Humboldt's expression, is the " bridge of the 
universe," etc. He speaks of the great importance of such a line to his 
own State of Oaxaca, and says that he is interested in its construction 
for the advantage of the people of his diocese. He speaks also of his 
knowledge of the State and of its riches and possibilities. Practically 
that is his whole letter. 

Another clear proof of " treason." This man was interested in his 
State, and in the Republic of Mexico. He refused to vote an enormous 
sum for unnecessary railroad concessions; but points out where, in his 
opinion, the necessity does exist. That he has a right to do so, and that 
he was a man whose opinion was worth while, is proven by the fact that 
the President had appointed him to such an important commission. He 
places his knowledge at the disposal of the Minister of the Interior, asks 
for nothing, but points out what he thinks would result in national benefits. 
I wonder if Senators and Congressmen of the United States could not, 
each of them, gather up a large series of " incriminating " letters of this 
kind against " traitors," clergymen of all denominations, in Podunk, Blue 
Ridge, Pine Grove, and to the uttermost ends of the Republic, pointing 
out, not benefits such as those which would result in a railroad over the 
Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but benefits in dredging a mud creek. If Sefior 
Enriquez had only known something about American politics, he would 
not have been trapped into publishing a letter of this kind as a proof of 
" treason." Why, bless your heart, my dear Senor, letters endorsing even 
applicants for postoffices are considered as the outpourings of patriots, 
and clergymen write them every day. 

The fifth letter is from the Minister to the Archbishop. He acknowl- 
edges having received the suggestion and of having considered it. He 
believes that such a railroad is of great importance, not only from the 
military point of view, but for the convenience of the public in general. 
He promises to take an interest in it when circumstances permit. 

There is no doubt that such a letter as this, coming from the Minister 
of the Interior, should be punished with death. I shall always, in the 
future, with Senor Enriquez's standards of patriotism before me, look 
with grave suspicion upon any Cabinet officer of the United States, who 
ventures to suggest any improvement of any kind whatever, or to take 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 111 

an interest in any public work that might possibly be of advantage to the 
people. 

The sixth and last letter is supposed to be from the Archbishop of 
Michoacan to the same Minister. It is unnecessary for me to quote from the 
letter, because I am acquainted with the real Archbishop of Michoacan. 
This letter is dated September ii, 191 3, and is signed " Jenaro Mendez." 
It happens that the Archbishop of Michoacan's name is not Jenaro 
Mendez, but Leopoldo Ruiz. It is up to Mr. Enriquez to explain whether 
he is lying only to the extent of attempting to palm off another man's 
letter as that of the Archbishop of Michoacan, or whether he invented 
the whole letter and signed another name, to avoid incarceration in the 
penitentiary for forgery. This, you see, would be a real danger, because 
both Senor Enriquez and the real Archbishop of Michoacan are now in 
the United States, where forgery is punishable, and where the fact that a 
man happens to be a clergyman of any rank, does not prevent his securing 
the protection of the law. 

Americans will quickly see that in Mexico, under the rule of the Con- 
stitutionalists, a clergyman dare not even suggest his ideas on any subject 
without danger of being looked upon as a traitor. 

Enriquez. — At the same time while they are demanding protection 
for their co-religionists in Mexico, Germany is devastating one Catholic 
country after another. 

Answer. — Germany is engaged in a war. Catholics of Germany are 
fighting for their country, as are Catholics of England, Belgium and 
France for theirs. Neither side is in a war of destruction against religion. 
If churches and religious houses suffer, it is not because they are buildings 
consecrated to God, but because they are in the Hne of fire. If priests and 
sisters are killed, it is not because they are priests and sisters, but because 
they happen to be on duty where the shots fall. Bullets do not select 
landing-places for themselves. Mexico, however, is at war with no other 
country. She is killing her own citizens to settle political questions that 
long ago she promised to settle with ballots. She is in the hands of 
anarchy, upheld by disciples of anarchy, who destroy churches and 
religious houses because they are churches and religious houses. She 
kills and exiles priests and sisters because they are priests and sisters, 
and for no other reason. There lies the difference. 

Enriquez. — The cries of clergymen that the United States swoop 
down upon Mexico and at the point of a gun perpetuate the power of the 
Catholic Church, is in itself the greatest indictment against the leaders who 
are working in that direction. . . . The American people and the 



112 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

Washington Administration are beginning to realise that not all is well 
zvith high Catholic dignitaries in Mexico. 

Answer. — Why drag in the Washington Administration? If the 
Washington Administration has no right to concern itself about the affairs 
of Mexico, as Mr. Carranza has time and time again intimated to the 
Administration in most insulting terms, what interest has the Washington 
Administration in the condition of the " high Catholic dignitaries in 
Mexico " ? What interest has the Senate and Congress of the United 
States, to whom the Sefior has been careful to send his pamphlet? Your 
" First Chief " has told the United States to mind its own business, yet 
you insist now that it should consider the Catholic Clergy. Is not this. 
asking intervention of your own kind? 

Now we do not want intervention of any kind. We want the noise 
in the next house, which threatens to give us no rest at all, stopped per- 
manently, when it does stop. It is our right to recognize a neighbor or 
refuse to recognize him. We have already exercised that • right with 
Mexico, and we can exercise it again. We can say to Mexico : '/ Live up 
to your professions ; take the pledge and keep it ; then I'll recognize you, 
not before." Do you see the point, Sefior? Our Government is repre- 
sentative, and there is no member of it who does not know that fact. 
There is a sentiment aroused now by the wholesale killings, and robberies, 
and crimes of your friends. That sentiment will not down. It is speak- 
ing to you now, and its voice is penetrating enough to be heard as far as 
Mexico, via representative government. 

It is scarcely necessary for me to ask how long it has been since this 
good Catholic from Mexico has been to confession ; how long since he 
has seen the inside of a Catholic church for spiritual purposes ; how long 
since he has heard a Catholic sermon ; and how much he knows of a very 
small but compact little book of doctrine known as the Penny Cathechism> 
Had he known the little book, he would have known that the Founder of 
the religion he says he professes, hated a liar and condemned him to 
penalties equivalent almost to that of living under the Constitutionalists. 
He would have known that " to bear false witness against your neighbor " 
is one of the crimes forbidden by the Commandments given on Mount 
Sinai. Had he listened to sermons, he would have known that it is the 
mission of the Church to teach, and her glory to educate the people and to 
uplift the poor. He would have known that any law made in manifest 
opposition to that right, is a law for which no Christian nation can have 
any sympathy, or could tolerate. He would have known that the worst 
of all forms of tyranny is that tyranny which strikes at the natural rights 
of mankind. Had he placed his case before the tribunal of penance, he 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 113 

would have known that theft, sacrilege, lust and murder can not be apolo- 
gized for, but are-simply crimes in the eyes of God and man. If the Senor 
Enriquez is a " faithful " Mexican Catholic, I would pray daily to deliver 
me from the evil of many such as he. But since it is plain that he is an 
utter stranger to the truths that his Faith would have taught him, had he 
given it a chance, I will ask him to open another book, the Constitution of 
the United States of America, and read the principles that are the founda- 
tion of the liberties enjoyed by the people of a democracy which has 
proven a success, and in which the State has no quarrel with the Church, 
and the Church no quarrel with the State. He could there learn what 
principles underlie the convictions of the American people, and see how 
foolishly have his friends acted, in their desire to win our friendship, by 
presuming that we are anarchists instead of republicans. 

It was Abraham Lincoln who said that no State could exist " half 
slave and half free." He might have gone farther and said : that there 
can be no pariahs in a democracy. The Constitutionalists have proclaimed 
their intention of adding to the Laws of Reform and disfranchising the 
clergy. In other words, they want a nominal democracy in Mexico, with 
the clergy for pariahs. They want to cut off one of the largest sections 
of their educated population from using that education for the benefit of 
their country. There is something to be said, but very little, in favor of 
the idea that state servants should abstain from voting, but what can be 
said for the idea that churchmen, receiving no support from the State, 
and living on the free offerings of the people whom they serve, should be 
deprived of one of the first and most essential rights of citizenship. The 
Sefior Enriquez may say, perhaps, that it is because they disobey the laws. 
He has already intimated that we must face that charge against the clergy 
of Mexico. Very well, we will face it, face it gladly, pleased, indeed, that 
he gives us the opportunity. 

The clergy have " ignored the laws," he says, of the Mexican Republic. 
He means that the clergy have disobeyed these laws — that the Church 
has disobeyed them. And it is perfectly true that the Church has had 
institutions of learning and of charity in Mexico contrary to the Laws of 
Reform. It is also true that Mexico has had, during all the reign of 
General Diaz, a dictatorship ; and it is also true that, under that dictator- 
ship, the existence of these institutions was known to the government. 
It is the government's business to enforce its laws if it wants to enforce 
them ; and when it does not enforce them, it recognizes the fundamental 
injustice of them. But leave that aside. The Church has disobeyed the 
laws of Mexico ; but she has disobeyed them to a far less degree than the 
early Christians disobeyed the laws of the Roman Empire; than the 



114 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

Pilgrim Fathers disobeyed the laws of Great Britain; than the Amer- 
ican Colonists disobeyed the laws which imposed the Stamp Tax; than 
Andreas Hof er disobeyed the laws of Austria ; than Irish Catholics and 
Quakers disobeyed the laws of England; than Hidalgo disobeyed the 
laws of Spain. Would the Sehor Enriquez applaud or condemn diso- 
bedience in that? 

There are some fundamental rights tha't the common mind of the 
human race holds to be above the laws. We do not all agree how far these 
rights extend, how much is included in them, yet no one doubts but that 
the conscience answers to God and not to human laws. When the Cath- 
olic Church in Mexico built her schools and established her works of 
charity, she did disobey the Laws of Reform. When a country priest in 
Mexico walked in his cassock to a poor, dying peon, and administered 
the last sacraments at his bedside, which was outside a church building, 
clearly he disobeyed the same laws. When three or four good women 
lived in community for the purpose of nursing the sick, teaching the 
ignorant or caring for orphans, they were in disobedience of the laws, 
though the brothel down the street, with its two dozen prostitutes, was not 
disobeying them. When a Christian Brother taught the poor children to 
read and write, he certainly was violating the law, and some of them paid 
the penalty when they fell bullet-ridden at Zacatecas. Yes, the Catholic 
clergy have disobeyed certain laws ; and had they not done so during the 
last two generations, I question much if the Sehor Enriquez would now 
be able even to read, much less to write ; and if the educated class of 
Mexico would be in existence at all, for most of them received all the 
education they have from these religious teachers, who violated the Laws 
of Reform in giving it to them. But in doing this, the clergy did not 
violate the higher law of God. But they did run risks and raised ,up 
against themselves a band of ingrates, whose ingratitude is without parallel 
in the history of the world. 

Sehor: Very justly leaving in solitary infamy, as it deserves, the 
deed that was done on the World's Redeemer by the Tragedy of 
Calvary, many men — poets, statesmen, historians — have tried to ascer- 
tain the basest deed of ingratitude ever wrought. Not one of them has 
succeeded ; for, in ignoble procession history has passed before them, 
sons who killed their fathers, false friends who slew true friends, 
daughters who scorned their mothers, wives who stained their husbands' 
names, rulers who betrayed their people, Catalines who outbetrayed a 
Brutus, Henrys who outslaughtered a Richard, Neros who outrivaled 
every other matricide. The task of finding the Mountain of Ingratitude 
has hitherto proven too great even for a world's quest. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 115 

Sefior: It is no longer necessary to search. The quest is ended. Not 
one man, but a body of men, flaunting the sacred flag of Hberty, invoking 
the holy name of God, have arisen to curse the Mother who bore them to 
the family of Civilization, the Mother who guided their shaking steps 
toward the haven of Truth ; the Mother who led them out of the bondage 
of savagery, away from the temples wherein their ancestors' blood 
drenched red the stones of the altars of pagan sacrifice. Infamy has 
found sons, who, claiming their Mother's name, have yet tried to dishonor 
her; who, protected by the love she so freely gave to all her children, 
returned a hatred worse than the worst she has known from her most 
relentless enemies ; whose plans, conceived in malice and laid in darkness, 
are to tear even the faithful from her protecting heart, and drive the 
Mother herself from the home she builded and ornamented with her labor, 
into the desert of the world's contempt ; whose brutality has outdone the 
brute ; whose malice has been more malicious than revenge ; whose lust 
has been more unsparing than sin's, without any of sin's weak excuses ; 
whose greed has been more rapacious than that of the shark, because even 
satiety does not appease it. 

Seiior: There has been written by your friends, the bloodiest and 
most disgraceful chapter in the history of this new continent, a chapter 
which now takes from France the shameful badge she has hated to wear, 
the red badge that marked her as having given to the world its Greatest 
Terror. They, your friends, have put upon America this crowning 
infamy, and have left to poor Mexico the bearing of the shame of it, until 
some, more ungrateful, more vile and more loathsome than yourselves, 
may arise in the dark days that are to come to outdo you in the effective- 
ness of your work of destruction. Your country is in the grasp of 
anarchy. Your coinage is debased. Your riches are in the coffers of 
strangers. Your people cry for peace. Your children cry for bread. 
Your temples are profaned. The seats of your judges have been cast 
down. Your halls of legislation are silent. The chair of your authority, 
is the prey of bandits ; and your women — God help them — mothers of 
your citizens yet unborn, go into mourning for the black memory of the 
worse than death that has fallen upon them. Mexico, a spectacle for 
angels and men, no longer can rise to accuse you, for gagged and 
manacled, she av/aits the impending stroke of grace. 

Sefior : God is not to be mocked. He has been more than patient, 
but even Infinite Patience must merge into Infinite Justice. Blood calls 
to the Blood shed on Calvary for peace, and the Blood of Calvary will 
answer. Outraged Innocence prays to Eternal Innocence, to vindicate 
purity ; and the cry will not echo back to earth unheeded. To-day, in 



116 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW " ' 

the noise of the din of a world at war, men can not hear the plaint of 
poor Mexico ; but the Ear of Eternal Justice is not stopped, and the 
clouds of battle shut out from His Eye no spot on earth where evil deeds 
are done. There is a new Day of Atonement to come, for there is a God 
of nations. Who " slumbers not nor sleeps." 



"The Religious Question in Mexico 



99 



A REPLY TO MR. LUIS CABRERA 

By 

Francis Clement Kelley 

Author of "The Book of Red and Yellow" 

Mr. Luis Cabrera, right hand of Don Venustiano.Carranza, has come 
forward with a " reply " to " The Book of Red and Yellow," on behalf 
of the Constitutionalists. His work was pubHshed in Spanish at Vera 
Cruz, in a few Mexican papers of the United States, in the Forum maga- 
zine, and lately in pamphlet form by the Carranza junta in New York. 
Such a well-circulated " reply " deserves to have the dignity of special 
attention, which I hope to give it in this pamphlet. 

Mr. Cabrera, as a citizen of Mexico, should, however, be known to 
those about to be introduced to Mr. Cabrera as an author and apologist. 

My inquiries regarding his public career resulted in the following 
interesting statements : The gentleman is a lawyer who practiced in 
Mexico City, where some people gave him the name of " El Renagado," 
which, being translated, means " The Renegade." This name was applied 
because of his activity on behalf of a foreign corporation which held the 
estate called "El Tlahualilo," and against which the Mexican Govern- 
ment was proceeding. I make no comment on the justice or injustice of 
Mr. Cabrera's nickname. He had it. The gentleman was also some- 
thing of a journalist. He wrote many letters upholding the idea of 
Revolution, for which he was rewarded by being made an important man 
in the government of President Madero, who appointed him President of 
the Law School of the University. The students, however, objected, and 
went on a strike, stating that such an appointment was a disgrace to the 
school. 

Mr. Cabrera was then "' elected " to Congress, presumably by the 
usual Mexican method. There he represented, principally, Mr. Gustavo 
Madero. He led a bodv in Congress called " la porra," a group using 
howling mobs to support, by shjuts and invectives, the policies of the 
great Gustavo. 

Mr. Cabrera's activities a? a lawyer led him, more than once, to stir up 
international difficulties for the Government of Mexico. Those who 
know him mention often the case of the mine business of S. Gerenimo 
Taviche in the State of Oaxaca. 

117 



118 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

Mr. Cabrera does not love those who stand for religion of any kind. 
He is particularly opposed to convents and nuns. His family, however 
— so it was stated to me — is in refuge, safe from his fellow Constitu- 
tionalists, and protected in a convent of Catholic nuns at Barcelona, in 
Spain. Consistency, then, is no jewel in the crown of Mr. Luis Cabrera. 

I mentioned that Mr. Cabrera is now connected with the Constitu- 
tionalists, but perhaps I must revise that statement ; since recently I read 
in Mexican dispatches that a little misunderstanding had arisen in Car- 
ranza Cabinet councils, and that this gentleman, with two other shining' 
lights, had withdrawn. In fact, the dispatches intimated that Mr. Cabrera 
had gone from Vera Cruz to the healthier climate of Progreso. His 
" reply," the one now under dissection, was dated " Merida." In these 
days of modern democracy, the old saying about the uneasiness of " the 
head that wears a crown," might be changed to the still more palpable 
truth, that there is much uneasiness for the heads that do the systematic 
lying for the Constitutionalist faction of Mexico. However, Mr. Cabrera 
seems to be again with Mr. Carranza — at least he was two weeks ago. 

Before going farther, it will be necessary for me to say, for Mr. 
Cabrera's enlightenment, that the name of the author of "The Book 
of Red and Yellow " is not " Francisco Elguero," but Francis (Francisco 
if you wish, Senor) Clement Kelley. Mr. Cabrera made what might char- 
itably be called a mistranslation when he rendered my name " Francisco 
Elguero." Is it possible that he preferred to render it thus ? It happens, 
you see, that Francisco Elguero is also a journalist, is also a lawyer, also 
a leader in a political party, but opposed to Mr. Cabrera. Is it possible 
that Mr. Cabrera translated my name as he did, so as to make it appear 
that his enemy had been doing something very reprehensible in Constitu- 
tionalist eyes — telling the truth? Thus, you see, he might kill two birds 
with one stone — answer, " The Book of Red and Yellow," and doom to 
dark destruction his able rival. If Mr. Cabrera had that in mind, my 
respect for his ability increases, in proportion as my respect for his hon- 
esty decreases. 

Let me make a few selections from the Citizen Cabrera's answer, and . 
add to each one some comments in my own. 

Cabrera. — The Catholic clergy (of Mexico) are now doing the same 
work in foreign countries that they did in i8^p and i860. 

Answer. — For the enlightenment of Americans who have not closely 
followed the history of Mexico, I wish to explain that Mr. Cabrera refers 
here to the French intervention and the setting up of an Empire in Mex- 
ico under Maximilian. This was done, however, not by the clergy, but 
through the influence of the Conservative Party of Mexico, a political 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 119 

faction not in any way connected with the Church. It is true that some 
of the clergy, including the Archbishop of Mexico City, were members 
of the party, just as the Democratic or Republican parties in this coun- 
try have followers among the clergy of all denominations. There have 
always been certain clerg}'men of Mexico in the Liberal Party, and cer- 
tain clergymen in the Conservative Party. One might as easily blame 
the Catholic clergy of the United States for the war with Spain, because 
Archbishop Ireland was a Republican, as blame the clergy of Mexico 
for French intervention because Archbishop Le Bastida was a Conserva- 
tive. Mexico at that time was suffering as it suffers to-day — from 
revolution. As Mr. Cabrera himself states, it was a far more bloody 
revolution than even the one of which he is a distinguished leader. He 
says himself that the old revolution affected his country far more deeply 
than the present one. That explains much. Sick at heart, the leaders 
of the Conservative Party invited the intervention, as Mr. Cabrera says, 
of Spain, France and England. France intervened and, with the consent 
of the Conservative Party, an emperor was sent to Mexico. France did not 
intend to pennanently occupy the country ; but did intend to uphold the 
Empire until such time as it was properly established. The Empire, 
however, was to be Mexican, not French. The country was given a con- 
stitution. All promised well enough ; but the Empire idea was not in 
accord with the Monroe Doctrine. The setting up of a foreign ruler, 
however, could scarcely have meant the enslaving of Mexico. William 
of Orange became King of England on the invitation of an English party, 
and, while the Irish have presumed to doubt his success, English his- 
torians have been rather kind to him. George the First of England was 
a German. He could not even speak the English language; but he set 
up a dynasty which has adopted, and has been adopted by, the English. 
One of German George's descendants is busy to-day fighting his ances- 
tors. So, even if Maximilian's government had been successful, that 
would not have meant necessarily the curtailing of the liberties of the 
Mexicans. It might even have meant something like the prosperity of 
England. 

Mr. Cabrera asserts that the Catholic clergy set up the Maximilian 
government, while, as a matter of fact, the clergy were just as much 
divided over the question of finding means to stop the bloodshed and 
warfare and destruction of i860 as were the rest of the people. Mr. 
Cabrera may be a lawyer, but he evidently is not a logician. It seems that 
if he can find the name of a single Catholic clergyman who had anything 
to do with a movement of which he himself does not approve, he considers 
it sufficient reason for condemning all the Catholic clergy and the whole 
Catholic Church of Mexico. A schoolboy would reason better. Was the 



120 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

Episcopal Church responsible for the Southern Confederacy because an 
Episcopal bishop, Polk, fought in the Confederate ranks? 

Cabrera. — The people of the United States have been led to believe 
that the Catholic religion in Mexico has no freedom whatever. 

Answer. — Very true ; but they have been led to believe it because it 
has been proven to them, and that in the most effective way possible — by 
Mr. Luis Cabrera himself, as I will presently show. 

Cabrera. — The Catholic clergy (of Mexico) have invoked the aid of 
the American Catholic Church for the purpose of obtaining the influence 
of their country, and even its intervention against Mexico, to destroy the 
zvork of Juarez. 

Answer. — The Catholic clergy of Mexico have done nothing of the 
kind. They have been living very quietly in exile at dift'erent points in the 
United States on the charity of their fellow Catholics ; for they came to 
us denuded of all they had, some of them dressed as peons, through the 
zeal for " religion and liberty " of Mr. Cabrera and his friends. When 
American Catholics saw their sad condition, they were filled with indig- 
nation, and this indignation was not confined to Catholics alone, but was 
shared by Protestants. Then Americans began to study Mexico and 
learned about the Laws of Reform. We knew that no country calling 
itself a democracy can live under such tyranny ; so we. Catholics as well 
as Protestants — but all Americans — called the attention of our Gov- 
ernment to these laws, and told our people exactly what the Constitu- 
tionalists aimed at. The Mexican clergy had nothing whatever to do 
with the matter. It was Americans who pointed out to the American 
Government the deception practiced by the Carranzistas ; and Americans 
will continue to point this out, until Mexico begins to learn that democ- 
racy and tyranny are not synonymous terms. 

Cabrera. — The propaganda of the Mexican bishops and clergy in the 
United States aims at making the Constitutionalists appear as denying 
guarantees of liberty and as persecuting the Roman Catholic clergy. 

Ansiver. — There was no need of such a propaganda. Mr. Cabrera 
himself says that religious bodies should be absolutely without what he 
calls " temporal power " ; by which he means that the Church (and this 
includes all denominations, as he specifically states) should have no right 
to own any buildings, any land, any investments within the territory of 
Mexico. Should any church own land, buildings or investments, they 
must be confiscated at once to the State, which is justified in either using 
them itself for its own purposes, selling them, or giving them to private 
citizens. The Church can not inherit or transfer anything it possesses; 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW l21 

in other words, nothing can be set aside for the endowment of rehgious 
institutions ; nor can a church have any real possessions whatever. The 
State, he claims, has a right to determine how many churches the people 
need, no matter how many they built. The State has a right to take 
church property and do as it pleases with it. The clergy, he contends, 
have no right to hold property, and if they do hold it as private citizens 
only, the State should investigate to see if, perhaps, they intend to make 
a religious or charitable use of it ; in which case the State should take it. 
Of course, if the clergy intend using it for gambling purposes, or for 
houses of ill-fame, or mescal shops, the State could not take it. These 
purposes are presumably lawful, and proper for the preservation of 
society and for the good of the Republic. No clergyman should, accord- 
ing to Mr. Cabrera, speak about politics or take any interest whatever 
in the political affairs of his country, or use his influence directly or indi- 
rectly to that end. There should be no trust to hold property belonging 
to a church, and if such a trust is made, the legal heirs ought to come in 
and take the property on the death of those who compose the trust. That 
this has been done Mr. Cabrera himself asserts, for he says that " the 
Church often lost her property by its being demanded by the legal heirs 
of the apparent owner." These are just a few of the admissions that Mr. 
Cabrera makes. I do not think that the Mexican bishops and clergy could 
go any farther than Mr. Cabrera has gone. 

As to the charge that the Constitutionalists persecuted the Roman Cath- 
olic clergy, Mr. Cabrera will perhaps remember that the list of murders, 
robberies, tortures, etc., made in " The Book of Red and Yellow " were 
quite numerous and were mostly given under oath. 

It may also be a matter of interest to the gentleman to know that the 
only activity the Mexican bishops exiled in the United States showed was 
when some indignant Americans proposed intervention. Then, to a man, 
the Mexican clergy used their influence on their Catholic brethren in the 
United States to oppose such intervention. How do I know this ? Because, 
for the good of Mexico, as I thought, I myself was in favor of intervention, 
and it was through the influence of the Mexican bishops that I changed my 
mind and actively interested myself before the American Government in 
opposition to it ; as is shown clearly by my correspondence with the Presi- 
dent and the Secretary of State. If Mr. Cabrera thinks that by these 
false charges against the Mexican clergy he is going to raise up enemies 
for them among their people, he will have to reckon with the translation 
and circulation in Spanish of these letters among the citizens of the Mexi- 
can Republic. He is not dealing now with a quiet, long-suffering Mexican 
Hierarchy. He is dealing with sixteen million Catholic citizens of the 
United States, and a good many others who are not Catholics, but who 



122 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

know their rights, who know their duties, and who have long ago gotten 
past the time when they are going to stand for any nonsense. 

Cabrera. — / have written the following article with the purpose of 
making the American people knozu the real position of the Mexican clergy. 

Ansiver. — But you have entirely omitted saying anything except on 
your own unqualified statement. Are you a lawyer, or do you only make 
a pretense at practicing law ? If you are a lawyer, do you always go to 
court with a speech but no evidence ? 

Cabrera. — The religious question in Mexico has been misunderstood 
in the United States because the position of the Catholic Church in Mexico 
is far different from that of the position of the same Church in the United 
States. In Mexico ninety-nine per cent of the population belong to the 
Roman Catholic creed; therefore, the influence of the Catholic clergy in 
our religious matters has no opposition at all. 

Answer. — Well, we dense Yankees, perhaps, have a mistaken idea as 
to what opposition is. Churches looted and destroyed, colleges razed to 
the ground, schools closed, teachers expelled, religious women assaulted, 
Christian Brothers and priests murdered, laws made limiting religious 
rites, prohibition of religious ceremonies, edicts forbidding preaching and 
the teaching of Sunday-school, these things we call opposition in English. 
What do you call them in Spanish, or rather in Mexican, or better still, 
in Constitutionalist Mexican? And what do you intend to prove b^ 
showing that ninety-nine per cent of the population of Mexico belongs 
to the Catholic faith? Does that mean that a ninety-nine per cent of 
Catholic population justifies anti-religious laAvs? If so, logically, ninety- 
nine per cent of a Methodist population in the United States would jus- 
tify the American people in cutting the throats of the Methodist ministers, 
smashing their educational system to atoms, expelling their deaconesses 
and outraging some of them. What kind of logic is this for a lawyer ; 
and what difference, please, would it make to the United States if all her 
people were religious or belonged to one denomination, so far as her laws 
are concerned? The principles of justice are the same, no matter what 
the religious conditions are, and no matter how strong any denomination 
may be. The principles of democracy are the same. Must it be admitted, 
then, that as soon as any religious denomination in the United States 
is in a majority it should be suppressed ; or is toleration not possible for 
the religious opinions of a majority? Tell us. Citizen Cabrera, who has 
governed Mexico for the last eighty years : the majority of ninety-nine 
per cent Catholics, or the minority of one per cent atheists? Isn't it a 
fact that the one per cent has governed ? Isn't it a fact that the so-called 
Liberals have had absolute control, and that their oppressive laws have 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 123 

been put on the statute books so as to keep that control? Isn't it a fact 
that your one per cent has been grafting on the nation, enriching itself, 
and handing down its legacies of graft to its children. Have the ninety- 
nine per cent no rights? Then, why do you talk for the nation? Does 
the ninety-nine per cent form part of that nation, or does the nation exist 
for the one per cent. We who are democrats would like to know these 
things. 

Cabrera. — In the United States there are other religious denomina- 
tions zvhich counteract the influence of the Catholic Church. 

Answer. — And yet these religious denominations have not seen fit, 
though they are in the majority, to deny the Catholic Church the same 
rights that they possess. They do not seem to believe it wise to destroy 
all liberty by attempting to legislate against the liberty of some of their 
neighbors. 

Cabrera. — The Laws of Reform aim to take all her power from the 
Church and to establish her absolute independence from the State. 

Answer. — " Absolute independence " is good. If I meet my neighbor 
on the street, knock him down, batter his face beyond recognition, break 
his arm and tie his legs so that he can not get away, then carry him to jail 
and lock him up permanently, I suppose I am then establishing his absolute 
independence. 

Cabrera. — The Revolution of Ayutla, in the years 1856 to 18 jp, 
aimed at despoiling the Church of her economical power and her social 
influence, and should, therefore, have put the Church in a condition which, 
apparently unjust and disadvantageous, was really the only possible means 
to make the Catholic clergy impotent. 

Answer. — So that was the object of the revolution : to render the Cath- 
olic clergy impotent, to make it impossible for the religious leaders of 
ninety-nine per cent of the people to lead, to counteract their influence 
and to make them slaves of the one per cent? That this was " unjust and 
disadvantageous " is certainly apparent ; the idea being an application of 
the old saying that " the only good Indian is a dead Indian," and the only 
way to have religion is to suppress it. 

Cabrera. — Maximilian himself did not dare to destroy the work done 
during the time of Juarez. 

Answer. — Was that the reason why Juarez shot Maximilian? But 
your statement is perfectly true. Why did Maximilian not repeal the 
Laws of Reform? Because French influence forced him to make a secret 
compact with Napoleon III. that he would not do so. It was foreign, and 
not Mexican, influence that upheld the Laws of Reform. Maximilian's 



124 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

action was directly contrary to the agreement he made with Miramon 
when the crown was offered him. It was the most unpopular thing Maxi- 
milian did ; and it helped to dethrone him. But where, O Citizen Cabrera, 
is now your argument that Maximilian was governed by the Catholic 
clergy? You are still limping terribly on the side of your logic. 

Cabrera. — At the present time there are in the Mexican Constitution 
some precepts which correspond to the Laws of Reform, and, according 
to the same Constitution, the laws and the authorities must enforce them. 

Answer. — But, my dear Sir, there are other precepts in the Constitu- 
tion of your country which concern " life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- 
piness." Must not " all authorities and laws " enforce these also ? Then, 
why is your Don Venustiano governing by edicts? Why have you set 
aside all the other provisions of the Constitution except the anti-religious 
ones ? Why have you had a dictatorship for over fifty years ? Why have 
you had no honest elections? You defend the anti-religious acts of Gen- 
eral Diaz, who made a football of the Constitution, and you are a Cabinet 
officer of Carranza who has made a lost golf ball of it. 

Cabrera. — The proposition of the Constitutional Government regard- 
ing the Catholic Church of Mexico is only to strictly enforce the Lazvs of 
Reform, which up to now have been violated. 

Answer. — And yet you say that they were apparently "unjust and 
disadvantageous," while Juares said that they were " tyrannical." You 
say you want peace in Mexico, and you say also that the Catholics have 
no right t6 agitate for a repeal of tyrannical laws, or to ask for any relief, 
while ninety-nine per cent of the people are Catholic. If these laws only 
must be enforced, and the ninety-nine per cent have no right whatever to 
express their desire to be relieved of them, please tell the American peo- 
ple, and the Mexican people, too, in what the government you desire 
differs from that of an absolute monarchy. Do you want a democracy, 
or do you want a perpetual tyranny? You can not have both at the same 
time. 

Cabrera. — These laws must remain. 

Answer. — Surely ! The one per cent wants them. Then it is tyranny 
you want. Americans are grateful to you for telling them frankly what 
to expect of you. That statement we will proceed also to lay before the 
Washington authorities, who have been laboring under the impression 
that you want liberty in Mexico. Once more, we beg to assure you, that 
you are not deahng with the Mexican clergy. You are dealing with Amer- 
ican citizens, who believe in a republican form of government and the 
elemental principles of liberty. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 125 

Cabrera. — The Church should he without temporal power, and as an 
organized body should not interfere in political matters. 

Answer. — So that if the Catholics, or the Presbyterians, or Metho- 
dists, or any other rehgious body in Mexico that now exists, or might 
exist in the future, desires to change the laws which oppress them, they 
would have no right to make such propositions. Carry this out logically. 
If there is a tariff law in Mexico which oppresses and renders impossible 
of operation the hemp industry of Yucatan, and the merchants band 
themselves together to agitate for such changes as will give them the right 
to exist, new Laws of Reform will have to be passed to take away from 
these merchants all their citizenship rights, and to prevent them from 
expressing an opinion, voting, or doing anything else to save themselves. 
Is that the idea ? 

Cabrera. — We Constitutionalists are Catholic; Villistas are Catholic; 
Zapatistas are Catholic as well. 

Answer. — How long is it since you attended Mass ? 

Cabrera. — The Constitutionalist Party could not intend to prevent 
Catholics, who are practically the entire Mexican people, either from pro- 
fessing their religion, or from taking a part in political matters. 

Answer. — Well, they made a very good attempt at it, anyhow. Cath- 
olics may profess their religion in Mexico, of course, provided they do 
not profess it openly. They can think that they are Catholics, but it is 
dangerous to say that they are Catholics. If they say that they are Cath- 
olics, for example, they could not hope to be Presidents or Cabinet offi- 
cers, or Judges, or Senators, or Jefes Politicos, or even superintendents 
of street cleaning ; but it would be conceded probably that they could hold 
the minor offices. They might dig ditches, sweep out the public build- 
ings, or herd sheep. There is no actual objection to Catholics working 
with their hands, provided they do not interfere with any remunerative 
job desired by the one per cent of Liberals. They may vote, of course, 
but then they must not count the votes; neither must they make political 
speeches, nor write about politics. In other words, they may be " hewers 
of wood and drawers of water." They are permitted to exist as long as 
they pay their taxes into the treasuries, which are under the control of 
the gracious Constitutionalists, and which are for their personal use. 

Cabrera. — The Mexican clergy, and generally, the Church, abstained 
for a long time from taking any part in our politics. 

Answer. — One of the most necessary things for a lawyer in drawing 
up a brief is to remember in the second paragraph what he said in the 



126 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

first. Evidently Mr. Cabrera is not a good lawyer, because this statement 
is in direct contradiction to about every other statement he made in his 
, excellent " reply." 

Cabrera. — During the government of General Diaz, the clergy did not 
intend to organise themselves for political battles. On the other hand, 
they appeared as strictly submitted to the laws of the country.. 

Answer. — Then why did you and your fellow Constitutionalists rebel 
against the government of General Diaz? It seems to have been quite 
your ideal. You do not obey any part of the Constitution except that 
part which suppresses the clergy ; neither did General Diaz for a long time. 
But you were not satisfied with that. You arranged a little revolution 
to put him out of office. You did it, you say, because you wanted him to 
obey the Constitution ; but now you are objecting to the clergy because 
they obeyed it. Would you, please, Citizen, tell us just what you do want? 
Frankly, your type of mind is beyond ordinary comprehension. Why, 
then, do you charge that the Catholic clergy were allied with Diaz, when 
you confess that they simply obeyed the laws and did not interfere in 
politics ? 

Cabrera. — When General Diaz retired from power and Mr. Francisco 
Leon de la Barra occupied the Presidency, the Catholic clergy thought that 
the time zvas come zvhen they should organise themselves for the political 
struggle. Therefore, a political party was formed under the auspices of 
the Catholic clergy and chiefly composed of landlords. 

Answer. — But later on you state that this party won considerable suc- 
cess at the polls ; in fact, had thirty per cent of the representatives qf 
Congress. Are the landlords in such a tremendous majority in Mexico 
that they could elect so many? We understood in the United States that 
in Mexico there were a few landlords who oppressed the overwhelming 
majority of the people. Then we understand that the Constitution gives 
only one vote to each person. Which is wrong — our understanding of 
the Constitution and of the proportion of landlords to the people, or your 
statement that the landlords chiefly composed the new party ? It is either 
one or the other. Which horn of the dilemma is the more comfortable 
for you to sit upon ? Again, perhaps you will remember that no political 
parties were permitted to actively exist under General Diaz, but you state 
that when the Catholic de la Barra became President, political parties could 
exist. Then the Catholic President was trying to give you a democracy ? 
Now, then, wasn't it a democracy you wanted? If you did not want that, 
what objection had you to General Diaz? If you did want it, wherein 
lay the crime of de la Barra? 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 127 

Cabrera. — ■ The Catholic clergy began to make the propaganda of the 
Catholic Party -first in a rather discreet way. 

Anszver. — Thank you. 

Cabrera. — But afterwards they did it openly. 

Answer. — Which, of course, is reprehensible, because the Liberals did 
their work in secret lodges. 

Cabrera. — And by oppressing the masses. 

Answer. — How ? Did they forbid the masses to vote, to own prop- 
erty, to leave what they had to the cause they considered most worthy? 
Did they take away their houses from them, or their investments? Did 
they forbid them citizenship rights? Explain. That is just what the Con- 
stitutionalists did to the Catholic clergy. Did the clergy teach them that? 
How did they do it ? They were not in power. They had no governmen- 
tal influence. Oppression of the masses are big words to use, but they 
require some elucidation. 

Cabrera. — When de la Barra was provisional President, the Catholic 
Party intended to rob the revolution of the fruits of its triumph by 
appointing the same de la Barra as a candidate for the Presidency of the 
Republic. 

Answer.— Was de la Barra a citizen of Mexico ? What says the Mexi- 
can Constitution? Did he have a right to run for President? Did the 
people have a right to elect him? Who was to be the final judge, the 
Constitutionalists or the people? Then, wherein lay the crime against 
the rights of the people of any party nominating any citizen, or any citi- 
zen running, for the office of President? Truly, your ideas of a Republic 
are strangely at variance with those recognized by other nations. But 
a more important matter is that the Catholic Party did not nominate de la 
Barra, and that he did not run for President. There were only two candi- 
dates for President at that election — Madero and Reyes. Another point : 
did not Madero himself, praise the Catholic Party as the first fruit of his 
revolution, hailing it as a sign of the liberty of organization which his 
government was going to inaugurate in. Mexico, and did he not thus praise 
the party even in the Senate chamber ? 

Cabrera. — In the elections of ipii, the candidacy of the Constitu- 
tional-Progressive Party won against the candidacy of the Catholic Party, 
and since that moment it (the Catholic Party) became one of the principal 
enemies of the government of Mr. Francisco I. Madero. 

Answer. — From what I have heard from Mexican Catholics, they were 
all inclined to consider Madero as one willing to grant them more justice 



128 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

than any previous President had granted. The bishops especially seemed 
rather favorably disposed tov^ard him ; but, even if they had been against 
him, Mr. Cabrera can give the ' reason. Madero himself decided that 
not more than thirty Catholic deputies would be permitted to sit in Con- 
gress. Mr. Cabrera was the gentleman to whom was assigned the task 
of carrying out these orders. He refused to accept fifty credentials from 
elected representatives who were Catholics, and some of even those rep- 
resentatives who were not Catholics but who were decent men. The rea- 
sons given for rejection were varied: one was that the form of certificate 
was not legal ; but in order to find this out, Mr. Cabrera must have used 
the X-ray, for he did not even take the trouble to break the seals on the 
credentials. When he was taxed with this wholesale ignoring of the will 
of the people, he stated, in full assembly of the Credentials Committee, 
that "above injustice was the convenience of the Constitutionalist-Pro- 
gressive Party." Let me see, does Mexico exist for the good of her 
people, or for the convenience of the Constitutionalist-Progressive Party? 

Cabrera. — The Catholic clergy, both directly and through the Cath- 
olic Party, was one of the principal factors in the fall of Madero; and 
though their candidate for the Presidency was not Huerta, it is a matter 
of fact that their leader — de la Barra — %vas in the Cabinet zvhich decreed 
the murder of Madero and Pino Suarez. 

Answer. — The murder of Madero and Pino Suarez was decreed by 
three men well known to Mr. Cabrera, and not by the Huerta Cabinet, nor 
by General Huerta himself. But even if the Cabinet had decreed it, the 
fact that de la Barra was in the Cabinet would prove only de la Barra's 
guilt. He was not the candidate of the Catholic Party for President, 
nor was he the leader of the party, or even a member of the party. The 
Catholic clergy had nothing to do with the fall of Madero, as Mr. Cabrera 
knows ; for in the fall of Madero the Catholic people of Mexico lost their 
last chance for even a semblance of justice. Mark well, I do not say 
justice; I say a semblance of justice. The Catholics of Mexico had been 
oppressed so long that even the semblance would have satisfied them. 

Cabrera. — Afterzvards the Catholic Party secured important positions 
for its principal leaders in the government of Huerta, and afterward 
supported the candidacy of Mr. Frederic Gamboa for President of the 
Republic. 

Answer. — The party had named itself "Catholic" without the con- 
sent of the Church. The Church had nothing to do with the rebellion 
against Madero, as is proved by the collective pastoral of the bishops 
issued in January, 1913, at Zamora, which condemned the rebellion in the 
most public manner and to all the faithful. For the purpose of winning 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 129 

over the Catholic Party, Huerta appointed a Catholic to his Cabinet. Con- 
gress would not permit him to accept. The Catholic Party, too, was dis- 
satisfied, because it recognized the fact that the appointment was only a 
bid for a support which it could not consistently give to General Huerta. 

Cabrera. — This work was done, not through the individual efforts 
which a man has a right to give to any political party, but by using the 
religious influence of the clergy upon the people — the pulpit and the con- 
fessional. 

Answer. — If ninety-nine per cent of the people of Mexico were Cath- 
olic, as you say, and the Catholic clergy really used their influence" through 
" the pulpit and the confessional " upon them, where would the Constitu- 
tionalists be to-day? The fact that there are Constitutionalists at all is 
the most striking proof that the clergy did not interfere in politics in any 
such way. 

Cabrera. — During the struggle against Huerta, the adverse and unjust 
opinion found in all cities occupied by the Constitutionalists was a surprise 
to them,, h seemed to be a paradox. 

Answer. — All the cities, did you say? But you tried to impress upon 
Mr. Lind, the representative of President Wilson, that the people were 
all for you. Now it appears that they were all against you. But you want 
a democracy. Then what were you fighting for, and by what right do 
you fight now ? Who rules, anyhow, or at least who is supposed to rule ? 
You decide what you think the people ought to have, then you tie the 
thing up into a ball and force it down their throats at the point of a bay- 
onet. It is no wonder that the Mexicans are being choked. 

Cabrera. — The strong opposition found by the Constitutionalists in 
some cities under the form of Social Armed Defense was not a sign of 
sympathy toward Huerta, but it was occasioned by a kind of horror toward 
the revolutionary soldiers, whom the Catholic clergy made appear as ban- 
dits who intended to take possession of towns and villages in order to rob, 
to loot, violate women, and murder. 

Answer. — And in order to prove that this was an unjust judgment 
on the Constitutionalists by the people, when you did take the towns and 
villages, you looted, you robbed, you violated the women and you com- 
mitted murder. It was a fine way to show the people that you were not 
bandits, that you were simply working for their own good, and to pre- 
serve their homes and their property and their most sacred rights. But 
have you even told the truth about this " Social Defense " ? The " Social 
Defense " of the different places like Moralia, La Piedad, etc., was really 
against bandits. When the actual troops of the Constitutionalists came 



130 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

to the city they were welcomed, because the people believed their promise 
that they would restore law and order. After they had begun their " work 
of restoration of law and order," the people prayed God to send the ban- 
dits along. What about the 1,300 carloads of loot taken out of Mexico 
City to Vera Cruz by Carranza? 

Cabrera. — The work of the clergy to form an adverse opinion to the 
Constitutionalists explains — even if it may not justify — many of the 
aggressions committed by the soldiers against the members of it. 

Answer. — Again I owe you thanks. Sir, for the little concession that 
the murders and other aggressions against the clergy were unjustified; 
also that they were committed. Mr. Tumulty please note. 

Cabrera. — But it is very natural that, after a political struggle, the 
military element felt disappointed, knowing the effects of the clerical 
propaganda against the revolution, and that instead of remaining within 
stated limits have, on some occasions, exceeded them and tried to interfere 
in some questions of a merely religious character. 

Answer. — For example, at the Constitutionalist Convention at Aguas- 
calientes. Does that explain the address of that strong upholder of 
Carranza who presided — General Antonio I. Villareal, graduate of Ameri- 
can penitentiaries, pupil of the Ferrer School of Anarchy in Barcelona? 

Cabrera. — The burning of the confessional boxes especially was a 
manifestation of the disappointment of the revolutionary forces, for the 
abuse of the Sacrament of Confession done by the Catholic clergy when 
they used it as a political weapon. 

Answer. — It was too bad that the clergy did such a thing. They must 
have interfered seriously with the liberty of the citizens Villareal, Garza, 
Obregon, Villa, Cabrera and Carranza. I can imagine the effect upon 
these gentlemen of the instruction they received at their weekly confes- 
sions. It must have irritated them terribly ; and, in the case of some of 
them, perhaps, it even made them hesitate about going to confession quite 
as often as usual ; or, perhaps, they changed their confessors. That may 
explain why nineteen priests were taken from Mexico City to Vera Cruz, 
headed by Paredes, who, I suppose, now occupies the position of official 
confessor to the Constitutionalist Government. But who hears the con- 
fession of Paredes? 

Cabrera. — It is necessary to state again and again that the Constitu- 
tionalist Government had never intended to interfere in religious matters, 
or to prevent the Mexican people in the enjoyment of their religious free- 
dom. The Constitutionalist Government does not intend to establish any 
laws zvhich may affect religion or to restrain in any way religious practices. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 131 

Answer. — That's fine ; but why should they intend to establish any 
new laws when they have already all that are required, and which they 
say they have no intention of repealing, but have a decided intention of 
enforcing? They " do not intend to interfere in religious matters " at all, 
or prevent the Mexican people from enjoying religious freedom? Then, 
in that case, why not start by giving the Mexican people religious free- 
dom ? Why not have a separation of Church and State such as the United 
States has? Why not remove the restrictions which are the cause of the 
difficulties? Why not let the people build their churches if they need 
them, take care of them, take care of their clergy, offer some help to the 
work of education and assist the progress of civilization in Mexico? Why 
not get them working for the country ? If the energies of the ninety-ninq 
per cent of Catholics are to be eternally spent in securing the most ele- 
mental rights from the one per cent who govern with a stiletto, how can 
you ask the ninety-nine per cent to contribute anything to the sane and 
safe progress of Constitutional Government ? But I forgot, you don't ask 
that. You only want them to quietly let you do as you please. But, since 
you wrote, Mr. Carranza has been recognized, and as a mark of his respect 
for your promises he has closed and seized more churches. 

Cabrera. — The Catholic clergy, before 1856, was the strongest eco- 
nomic power in the country. 

Answer. — Possibly. But the historians of Mexico all say that the 
lands rented from the Church were the lands sought by the people, because 
of the favorable conditions under which they were held ; because the 
tenants were taken care of ; because the children were sent to school ; 
because the poor were fed; and because usury was not permitted. It 
was bad business for the other landlords, who wanted a higher rate per 
cent for money, like some of them who demanded from ten and twelve 
per cent a week. These wanted to rent their lands at their own extor- 
tionate prices. The Church was a bad competitor, because ishe stood for 
justice. It is the same story as that of the lands in the Philippine Islands 
that were in the possession of the Friars. It was there looked upon as a 
scandal that the Friars held land, but chiefly because the Chinese-Mestizo 
was the other landlord. This wide-awake gentleman has his way now, 
but it is the people who pay — they always do. And, by the way, hark- 
ing back to the statement that the Constitutionalists have not interfered in 
religious matters ; was it interfering in religious matters to throw out 
the legitimately appointed Vicar-General of Mexico City and nominate 
Father Paredes, as Carranza did? And is it an interference in religious 
matters to close churches, because in the opinion of the Constitutionalists 
they are not needed ? or to say when the bells shall be rung ? or what par- 
ticular priest shall say Mass ? or to state that none may hear confessions ? 



132 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

or to forbid the alms collection on Sunday? or to interfere with the admin- 
istration of the Sacraments to the dying so that, even when the dying 
person was allowed to go to confession, a Constitutionalist representa- 
tive must be present to hear it? If there is to be any new legislation in 
this regard, why not get up a form of absolution to be used exclusively 
by Constitutionalist representatives at deathbeds? The State, having all 
power, ought to be able to give absolution. 

Cabrera. — The clergy vigorously opposed this arrangement, because 
that thus their money power would be reduced considerably. Then the 
war called " de Reforma " or " of three years " came. 

Answer. — Does it occur to Mr. Cabrera that the clergy might have 
opposed these laws because they were aimed at the very basic principles 
of liberty and justice? However, the three years' war was not brought 
on, or carried on, by the clergy. It was a straight fight between the Con- 
servative and Liberal parties in Mexico. Mr. Cabrera is constantly 
confusing the issue by referring to the clergy instead of the Conservative 
Party, when it suits him to do so. As a matter of fact, many of the mem- 
bers of the Conservative Party were looking for pelf just as much as 
were most members of the Liberal Party ; and in more than one case the 
clergy were ground between the two stones of the mill. 

Cabrera. — The essence of the Laws of Reform regarding the Catholic 
Church consisted of making it impossible for the clergy to hold real estate. 
Such a measure may appear extreme, but was absolutely necessary . . . 
the measure continues to be necessary. 

Answer. — The Church was despoiled in 1859. Now, Mr. Cabrera says 
the spoliation must continue. But who must continue being despoiled? 
The people built the churches in the beginning. Every penny that went 
into them came from Mexicans, directly or indirectly. When the estates 
of the Church were taken away, only the Government benefited, and its 
individual friends to whom the Government sold the property for a song. 
When the property was sold, it was at such ridiculous prices that it was 
plain the Government was simply using the sale as a pretext to enrich 
individuals who had helped in the stealing. Some of these men became 
immensely wealthy. Now, no one charges that the Church sent any of 
the money that came from its lands out of Mexico. Every one knows 
that it was all used for the colleges, schools, charitable and religious insti- 
tutions of the country; that the revenue was expended for the common 
good. When the Church lost her lands and property, and they were turned 
over to the Government's supporters, what became of the income? Ask 
the dive-keepers of Paris. One thing is certain, it is not democracy tcf 
take property that was used for the common good and hand it over for 
the enrichment of millionaires. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW , 133 

Cabrera. — In all countries it is now admitted that the Church must 
have no temporal power. 

Answer. — Mr. Cabrera's use of the words " temporal power " is a 
fine example of his dishonesty. He knows that, by the words " temporal 
power," most people mean the possession by the Holy See of the old 
Papal States. This gentleman uses it to mean that no Church or religious 
institution should be allowed to acquire or hold the land, buildings or 
investments necessary for carrying on its mission. Does England, Bel- 
gium, Holland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Austria, the United 
States, Italy, or even Russia, forbid Churches to have such possessions? 
Does even Turkey or China? They do not. Is it up to these countries 
to learn of the slaughtering, raping, stealing Constitutionalists of Mexico 
how to treat the institutions that stand for religion, and that are recog- 
nized as necessary to the very existence of nations? 

Cabrera. — The essence of the Laws of Reform regarding the Cath- 
olic Church consists in making it impossible for the clergy to hold real 
estate. 

Ansiver. — But why? The experience of the world shows that the 
Church can accomplish her mission under a union with the State, or free 
from such a union. If she is united to the State, then the State takes 
care of the temporalities, leaving to the Church her spiritual work. That 
situation is easily understood. If the Church is not united to the State, 
she is free, in every civilized nation except France, to have and to hold 
the property needed for her work. Mexico, emulating the worst of 
France's folly, wants no union of Church and State, but an enslavement 
of the Church by the State. Her Constitutionalists now desire to go 
farther. They want a dead Church in a live State. Why? The answer 
is easy. There is a class in Mexico that believes the country owes them 
a living. They are the lazy political class, fomenters of revolutions when 
out of power, grafters when in power. To these, in power or out, the prin- 
ciples of Christian morality are unalterably opposed. So much the worse, 
then, for the principles of Christian morality. There can be no truce. 
The Church may be discreetly silent on some things for the sake of the 
poor people ; but she can not suppress the Ten Commandments. Every 
sermon against theft is an offense. Every act of deference to legitimate 
authority is a blow at the supposed right of revolution. Every act of 
popular piety is bitter though silent reproach. The grafter's son at his 
First Communion, his little girl coming home with her " holy pictures " 
from school, the very innocence of these, his children, fills him with rage 
against an institution which he knows, deep in his heart, is a constant 
invitation to honesty, and, therefore, a constant menace to himself. This 
is the why and the wherefore of the Laws of Reform. This is the reason 



134 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

that Mr. Cabrera has for saying that they must be maintained. He hasn't 
yet secured all he wants. But when he desires to "protect and care for his 
own family, he sends them to a religious institution — but away from the 
' Mexico his friends have made. 

Cabrera, — These diMculties made the Church Und another way of 
holding her property without trespassing, apparently, the Laws of Reform. 
. . . All confiscations against the Church are lazvful. 

Answer. — Of course. It is well understood. If the Church finds a 
way to live within the law intended to kill her, the course of the Constitu- 
tionalists is plain : the laws must be changed so as to make that life impos- 
sible. A law-abiding clergy is something that can not be tolerated for 
an instant. If the law is so that they can exist without disobeying it, what 
excuse is there to oppress and kill the clergy? It is all clear. Que 
voulezvous? 

Cabrera. — The Hxing of the number of temples required for religious 
service ought to he made by the Church; but since the Catholic clergy 
in Mexico exerts an absolute government in religious matters . . . 
there is no basis to determine the number of temples needed in each city 
and town. The State is therefore the only capable power to agree with 
the Church as to the number of temples. 

Answer. — In one breath Mr. Cabrera demands separation of Church 
and State and in the next asserts that the State should even dictate the 
number of temples the people may build and occupy. That is why the 
Constitutionalists closed all the churches in Toluca, and all but one in 
many of the most populous towns and cities, even going so far as to allow 
but one service on one day of the week, forbidding all other religious 
ministrations, and allowing but one priest to officiate, who usually was 
the oldest and most feeble, so that there might be a possible chance that 
the one selected would be physically unable to act. Comment is unnec- 
essary. 

Cabrera. — Up to this time the Government has not used such a right 
(the "right" to take over the churches). Some time after the publication 
of the Lazvs of Reform — especially after 1857 — the Government of 
Juarez took some of the many temples existing in some cities to use them 
for public needs. 

Answer. — Which of these statements, diametrically in opposition, does 
Mr. Cabrera intend the public shall believe ? Why did the State take these 
buildings ? Mr. Cabrera says that it was because the Church had too many 
for the use of the people. But he also said that ninety-nine per cent of 
the people are Catholic, Then, surely, there were not too many temples 
for them. 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 135 

Cabrera. — Vera Crus is a town whose average population is 50,000, 
and yet three churches are enough for its religious needs. 

Answer. — We Americans are not supposed to be a strikingly pious 
people, yet the little country town of 4,000 inhabitants in which I happened 
to be the Catholic pastor for thirteen years, had eight churches. Vera 
Cruz evidently is not as good as its name, and strikingly proves that Mr. 
Carranza selected his seat of government wisely. Is the new rule to be 
one temple for each 17,000 people? Are all the others to be confiscated 
and turned over to the " faithful " Carranzistas for purchase at a nomi- 
nal price? There will be rejoicing, of a certainty. But the dives of Paris 
are closed since the war, and France, the mother of Mexican irreligion, 
is changing. By the way, Mr. Cabrera says that only real estate and 
investments are subject to confiscation. Perhaps science and learning 
may then rejoice in the return of the confiscated archeological library and 
museum of Archbishop Plancarte, (And again, by the way, Mr. Cabrera 
ought to know where that library is.) But that is too much to expect. 
Even if the people build the churches they think they need, and sustain 
them out of their devotion and poverty because they want them, Mr. 
Cabrera warns them that the State may not agree with them, but may pro- 
ceed to confiscate their property for the benefit of its faithful grafters. But 
it was a mighty small thing in a Minister of Finance to steal a poor bishop's 
books. 

Cabrera. — In 18/4 the beneficent orders so-called ''Sisters of Char- 
ity " were suppressed and the expulsion of all other orders, especially that 
of the Jesuits, was finished. The suppression of religious orders in Mex- 
ico was a measure taken to defend human liberty. 

Answer.- — ^And then education for the Indians and peons died. It's 
easier to handle them, you see, when the " faithful " need a revolution, 
if they are ignorant; and in the horror and misery of war, it might 
make the poor dying soldier think of God, if there was a Sister of Char- 
ity by to soothe his poor wounded body, when the soul is passing out of 
it. But there are Sisters in Spain, so Mr. Cabrera sends his family to 
them for the safety he can not find in Mexico. 

Cabrera. — It is absolutely false that some nuns have been made the 
victims of outrages of Constitutionalist soldiers. 

Answer. — Sworn statements to the contrary notwithstanding. Is this 
Mr. Cabrera's reasoning? The Laws of Reform suppressed all religious 
orders. Nuns are members of religious orders. Therefore, there were 
no nuns, and, therefore, nuns were not victims of outrages. Those who 
were victims (and there were thousands and thousands of women out- 



136 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

raged) were just women. The Constitutionalist soldiers were patriots. 
Patriots have rights. Women have none. There is no God, anyhow. 
What's the use ? 

Cabrera. — The said laws (of reform) answer a peculiar condition of 
Latin America. 

Answer. — Which are not found necessary in prosperous Costa Rica, 
Brazil, Argentina and Chile, but are found " necessary " in the more degen- 
erate graft-ridden republics of Latin America. But as Mexico, under her 
multitude of revolutions, has become the worst of all, when she should 
be the best, given the good people she has and her natural riches, she has 
sunk the lowest in her legislation and in her leaders. 

Cabrera. — The Constitutionalist Government intends in the meantime 
to uphold the separation of Church and State; and, therefore, it must 
not be zvondered at if it takes all necessary steps to despoil the Catholic 
clergy of the temporal pozver they want to reacquire, or if it declares that 
no religious institution shall organise any political body, or if it proceeds 
to the confiscation of such estates as those which illegally exist in the 
hands of the Church, or which, even held by private persons, may be 
proved to be giving their income to the Church. 

Answer. — A careful perusal and study of the above is commended to 
all American citizens without regard to their religious views. Remem- 
bering that by " temporal power " Mr. Cabrera means the right to hold 
property and investment securities, here is how the Constitutionalist plan 
for Mexican " liberty " works out : 

1st. There are Protestant schools and missions in Mexico. Under 
the Constitutionalist plan these would be treated like the Catholic Church, 
and growth would be forever impossible ; for not only could the missions 
own nothing themselves in the way of temples (since the State takes all 
such buildings and only permits the real owners to occupy those the said 
State thinks they need), but the denominations could hold no building for 
their school-work, no club for their children, no library or Sunday-school 
buildings, not even land for playgrounds. 

2d. Since the aim of all missionary work is to make each mission not 
only self-supporting, but also a new source of missionary energy later on, 
the Protestant missions in Mexico would always be operated with the real 
aim eliminated ; for the missions could receive no bequest, no gift of land 
or of securities for their work. They could have no houses for the man- 
agement of their own missionary enterprises. Their power of expansion 
would be absolutely nil, and their work would forever remain under the 
support and direction of foreign founders. An American could help in 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 137 

life or in death, by gift or bequest, provided the gift or bequest was not 
kept in Mexico in the shape of real estate or securities. If it was sent 
there it could be confiscated at once. 

3d. If the anti-religious laws are not to be enforced against Protes- 
tants, but are solely directed against Catholics, what sort of " liberty " is 
that which proscribes ninety-nine per cent of the population? 

4th. The basic command of the Founder of Christianity to His Church 
was to " teach all nations." Mexico, by depriving the Church of the right 
to hold the means of support for her missions, would change this into 
" teach no nation." 

5th. Not only does the Constitutionalist plan propose to make it impos- 
sible for the Church — or any Protestant denomination — to hold the 
means to carry on its missionary activities in pagan lands, but it likewise 
proposes to make it impossible for it to do anything for the eighty-five 
per cent of Indians at home. No Mexican dares give any real property 
or securities, or money for investment, for the purpose of erecting schools 
or charitable institutions among these poor people. Consequently, the 
missions for the Indians, who can not support the work themselves, must 
remain abandoned, as they are for that same reason to-day. The fifty 
years of the operation of the Laws of Reform have left the stamp of 
ignorance and lawlessness on the poor, neglected Indians. 

6th. No clergyman of the Catholic Church, or of any Protestant 
denomination, could feel safe even in keeping his private means in the 
shape of investments for his old age in Mexico, or even the patrimony of 
his family ; since a rigid investigation could be made by anti-religious 
officials, with the same kind of judges to pass upon the findings, to the 
end that the holding might be found to " illegally exist in the hands of the 
Church, or even held by private persons." That this is no impossible 
idea of my own, is proven by the fact that in one case known to me, the 
last will and testament of a bishop was taken so as to discover what he 
privately possessed; and his entire life's savings and private patrimony 
— 19,000 pesos — were confiscated as belonging in reality to the Church, 
therefore, to the Constitutionalists. This is only one case that came under 
my personal knowledge ; but, as a matter of fact, there are also many 
others. What thus becomes of the rights of free citizens ? 

7th. Any number of men, in order to bring odium and the charge of 
law-breaking on a religious institution, may use the name of the institu- 
tion for that of a political party and, without any cooperation by the 
institution's leaders, bring them into disrepute and dishonor ; they having 
no legal standing before the law and, therefore, being unable to protect 
themselves. 



138 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

8th, The' laws that thus proscribe rehgious institutions and forbid 
them even corporate existence before the courts of the State, would not 
proscribe lodges of anarchists, socialistic societies, or in fact anything 
but the organizations that work for morality and religion. 

9th. In Mexico, therefore, there could be no institutions like the Uni- 
versities of Yale (Presbyterian), Wesleyan (Methodist), Chicago (Bap- 
tist), any more than like Georgetown (Catholic) or Harvard (endowed 
by individual generosity) ; for the State alone must have a monopoly of 
education, as well as the right and duty to suppress religion. 

How do you like this picture, my Protestant brother who is shouting 
that " the Catholic Church got what she deserved in Mexico," in spite 
of the fact that for two full generations the Catholic Church has had 
to exist under these very restrictions? Do you think that a ninety-nine 
per cent Protestant population would survive two generations of such 
laws? Do you think that Catholics in Mexico were law-breakers, as Mr. 
Cabrera charges, when they patiently turned the other cheek and refused 
to rise and spill the blood of these petty tyrants? Wouldn't you natu- 
rally say that religious freedom under a stranger ruler was better than 
religious slavery under native-born devils? Well, the Catholic Church 
didn't do any of these things. She headed no revolutions, but condemned 
them all, as she did the one against Madero at Zamora. She knew that 
he who " takes the sword will perish by the sword." She attempted 
no retaliation. The chief charge against her to-day is that she would 
not foster revolution, even when headed by her own priests. And she 
stands to-day charged with what? Peace, nursing the sick, caring for 
the fatherless, instructing the ignorant, visiting the afflicted, soothing the 
pillow of the dying, feeding the poor, uplifting the Indian, preaching the 
gospel, administering the Sacraments. Mr. Cabrera says that the Church 
obeyed the laws under the long reign of General Diaz, yet now he wants 
to kill her. Had she disobeyed them his demand would have been the 
very same. 

As I read and commented on the extraordinary " reply " of this gen- 
tleman, I wondered if he and his friends ever really thought of how 
ridiculous they are in the eyes of honest people; how strangely like a 
band of unthinking savages they appear to those who are accustomed to 
the ways of civilization; how utterly without common sense they stand 
in the estimation of enlightened men and women of the twentieth centur}^ 
If he had a cause to plead, he has utterly failed to give even a probability, 
nor even a possibility, to its existence. If by such a statement as he has 
made, he wished to " answer " the charges of " The Book of Red and 
Yellow " in a way that might win his friends some sympathy from those 
who do not agree with the Catholic Church, he has effectually destroyed 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 139 

his chances by conceding the truth of every charge, and attempting to 
justify crimes by proving that his very laws, the laws of a Republic, are 
themselves crimes against justice, liberty, and the most basic rights of 
man. To free his chiefs and himself from the charge of murder, he 
quaintly urges that some one said " Boo " to them. To justify wholesale 
robbery by some degenerate Mexicans, he urges that all Mexico is a 
degenerate in the family of the nations. To excuse the most outrageous 
of tyrannies, he coolly lays the flag of sacred liberty over the slain, for- 
getting that it will quickly absorb the blood beneath, and change all its 
bright colors of hope into the red smudge of anarchy and destruction. 

Does humanity tramp the road of oppression and expect it to end in 
the paradise of liberty ? Does Mr. Cabrera dream that sane men will grant 
that insanity is its own cure? Does he think that Mexico will some day 
say, with the stench of his rotting victims still polluting the air, with the 
hunger cries of her starving children still ringing in her ears, with her eyes 
still sore at the sight of her ruins, that she pajd not overmuch for the privi- 
lege of exchanging one set of governmental grafters for another set, who 
added murder, rape and sacrilege to the original crimes against her ? 

You have led your country on the way of irreligion. Citizen Cabrera. 
What have you to show her for it? The old curse of the Godless. His- 
tory is only repeating itself. Man learns only to forget ; but God resents 
being left out of human calculations by leaving humans to calculate alone. 
He needs do no more to punish them. The pagans said : " Whom the 
gods wish to destroy, they first make mad." They were wrong. Whom 
the gods wish to destroy, they leave to the advice and counsel of such as 
Luis Cabrera — and the bitter end is swift, sure and despairing. 



An Open Letter to American Masons 

There has been pubHshed in an American Masonic journal called the 
New Age, a letter from Jose Castellot, Past Sovereign Grand Commander 
of the Supreme Council of the Masons of Mexico, which has been copied 
by several other Masonic papers. It is quite evident that the article is 
published with the approval of the editors of American Masonic journals ; 
and they seem to take it for granted that it will meet with approval by the 
members of the craft in the United States, 

It is, perhaps, not unnatural that American Masons seek to lay the 
case for Mexican Masonry before their brethren. No one could object 
to that. But, since we are constantly assured that American Masons have 
no affiliation with the Latin or infidel type, does it seem as if such pub- 
lication will have the effect of allaying suspicion and increasing good 
will? There are so many good men in the ranks of Masonry in the United 
States, so many men who have been constantly and consistently friendly 
to their Catholic fellow citizens, so many men whose honesty is with- 
out question, that many Catholics are prone to judge the attitude of 
Masons in this country toward their Church, by the men they meet, rather 
than by the things they hear. 

But, to-day it is an open and known fact, that almost every Masonic 
publication is in the hands of anti-Catholics, and that Masonic publica- 
tions are, in a mild form, doing the same work of bigotry as the filthy 
Menace and its ilk. Members of the craft whom we have always looked 
upon as fair-minded men, high in the esteem of all, while perhaps in the 
great majority among Masons, have nevertheless allowed those who speak 
for them to misrepresent their personal views. Masonic journals seem to 
want to bring American Masonry into line with the atheistic lodges that 
have taken such a bloody toll of Catholic lives in Portugal and in Mexico. 

I speak under correction, for I want to be fair, to be honest in dealing 
with this question. It is serious, and it is destined to become more serious. 
We are in the midst of religious strife, which Catholics have not invited. 
We believe that the majority of Masons do not want it, but how can we 
help thinking that there is danger of its becoming greater when we read 
in a Masonic journal such articles as those of Seiior Castellot? I still 
believe, however, that fair-minded American Masons will give the truth 
a hearing; so for that reason I am addressing this open letter to them 
as well as to the ex-Grand Commander. 

If the Sehor lived up to some of the solemn declarations in the open- 
ing of his article, I would not invite a quarrel with him. He " stands 

140 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 141 

squarely for religious liberty," he says, and he " pledges his honor as a 
Mason " to that. He asserts that his heart " goes out to those who are 
wronged." He demands the punishment of those who are guilty of 
atrocities. He raises his voice " in protest before the tribunal of univer- 
sal justice, regardless of the creed involved." He calls the outrages against 
Catholic priests and nuns " unspeakable." He refers in this connection 
to " the looting of their treasuries, the profanation of their temples, the 
ravishing of their bodies and the desecration of their most sacred objects." 
All this sounds good. The door by which he may escape is a small one ; 
but it is convenient. Let me point it out : " At the same time," he says, 
" I strive and struggle to uphold human liberty, whenever any religion 
attempts to strangle it " — the implication being that the Catholic Church 
in Mexico having attempted to strangle human liberty, those who com- 
mitted these unspeakable outrages went perhaps a little too far, but had 
excuses. Now human liberty is a big thing; and it has a great cause. 
But is it a bigger thing than religious liberty? Frankly I fail to see how 
Senor Castellot can reconcile ojffenses against religious liberty while he 
is struggling for human liberty. Where is the distinction? Still I give 
him credit for sincerity. I always try to give every opponent credit for 
that. So if I point out to him where he is wrong, will he accept my cor- 
rection kindly ? I think he will, for I must think so, since I credit him with 
being sincere. All right then, here is some part of the other side : 

Sehor Castellot charges that the Catholic Church is warring against 
Masonry. The Catholic Church wars against Masonry to this extent: 
that it forbids her members to be Masons, for the very obvious reason 
that Masonry is a religion and is so considered by Masonic writers. The 
Catholic Church believes that the Catholic Church is the pillar and ground 
of truth. She stands, therefore, in opposition to all doctrines which are 
opposed to her own teachings. Thus, for example, she is in opposition 
to Protestantism, to Mohammedism, or any other ism that is in funda- 
mental opposition to her. The Democratic party is in opposition to the 
Republican party, and both are in opposition to the Progressive party. 
All of them, however, manage to live together as citizens without break- 
ing one another's heads. No one seriously thinks that a Catholic can 
be a member of the Methodist Church at the same time that he is a mem- 
ber of the Catholic Church. Fundamentally, our quarrel with Masons in 
this country is the same, and fair-minded Masons recognize that fact. 
We oppose Latin Masonry for the same reason that American Masons 
refuse to recognize it — because it is a propagator of revolution and 
infidelity. 

Now, has the Catholic Church in Mexico, as charged by Sehor Castellot, 
attempted to destroy human liberty? I merely turn to the Laws of Mex- 



142 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW . 

ico, cite them, and there is the answer. Here is a summary I recently- 
compiled, of the anti-Catholic laws that have been on the statute books 
of Mexico for fifty years : 

" When the Revolution came, and with it the Laws of Reform of 
Benito Juarez, an end came also to what little freedom the Church had. 
She was despoiled of such possessions as had been left her. She was for- 
bidden to teach, which means to open schools of any kind, except of 
theology. Her ministers even could not dress as clerics. The law of May 
13, 1873, forbade any religious demonstration outside of a church build- 
ing, and forbade clergymen or Sisters to dress in any way that would 
indicate their calling. The Constitution of 1857 interfered with personal 
liberty to the extent of forbidding anybody to enter a religious order, 
and refused religious orders a legal right to hold property. The law of 
July 12, 1859, suppressed religious orders and religious societies, forbade 
the foundation of new congregations, ordered all books, manuscripts, 
prints and antiquities belonging to such orders to be given up. The law of 
February 26 suppressed female communities. The law of July 12, 1859, 
took away all property from the clergy; but that of February 5, 1861, 
returned to the Church its parochial residences, bishops' houses, etc. Then 
September 25, 1873, saw a new law which forbade any religious institu- 
tion to acquire property or the revenue derived from it. The law of 
December 14, 1874, struck at the right of the clergy to receive legacies. 
The law of July 31, 1859, took away from the clergy the right to manage 
or have anything to do with cemeteries. The law of February 2, 1861, 
took from the Church her hospitals and charitable institutions, as also 
did a law of February 28 of the same year. To make it more certain that 
the Church would not be charitable, the law of August 27, 1904, forbade 
clergymen to act as directors and administrators, or patrons of private 
charities, and extended this decree even to include those delegated by 
clergymen. It will clearly be seen that, under the Constitution and Laws 
of Reform, the clergy had little power left, and the Church little chance to 
uplift the people." 

These are the actual laws ; yet Senor Castellot says that, for the last 
ten years especially. Catholics have been waging a war against religious 
freedom. If we have been waging such a war, how has it been manifested, 
since we have not even changed the laws against ourselves ? 

What then have we been doing for the last ten years that is so repre- 
hensible? Senor Castellot says we worked "wholly regardless of the 
means employed." He outlines what these means were. He says we 
made an alliance with the " Cientificos," and we worked through the 
home. With what "Cientificos" did we make an alliance? Sefior Cas- 
tellot himself states that the leader of the " Cientificos," President Diaz, 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 143 

was himself a fellow member of the Supreme Council of Masonry. Sefior 
Castellot, on the authority of John Kenneth Turner, was himself a " Cien- 
tifico." Did we then work with Masons ? He states also that the " Cien- 
tificos " were in power and " controlled the will of the President." Surely 
then a number of Catholics were in the Diaz cabinets. Yet during the 
Presidency of Diaz there is scarcely a Catholic to be found on the list of 
Mexican officials. In the latter years of the Diaz Administration, there 
is one — de la Barra. During the Administration of President Madero, 
which is praised by Sefior Castellot, there was one more — Lascourain. 
Yet Mexico is a Catholic country ; in fact, overwhelmingly Catholic. But 
there have been fewer Catholics in the cabinets of Mexico than there 
have been in the cabinets of Presidents of the United States. Seiior Cas- 
tellot knows that this condition not only applied to the cabinets, but to 
the courts, and, in fact, to the legislatures and to the senates. Does this 
indicate that the Church was meddling in politics? Surely if she had 
been doing that, she would have seen to it that she had some representa- 
tion in the governmerit of the nation. 

But why should the Church be so anxious to bring about the fall of 
Madero? Pie gave Mexico what was the nearest approach to a fair and 
honest election ever attempted under the Republic. Under Madero the 
Catholic Church looked forward, for the first time since Juarez, to a hope 
for religious liberty for her own children. Seiior Castellot and those 
who believe him are laboring under the impression that the Catholic party, 
established with the encouragement of Madero, was fighting for some- 
thing to which Catholics were not entitled. Read over again the sum- 
mary of the Laws of Reform. The Catholic party simply wanted to 
change them. Senor Castellot, according to his own principles, ought to 
have helped them, for he says very beautifully that he believes in relig- 
ious liberty. There would have been no Catholic party in Mexico had 
the Catholics had even a semblance of liberty. There need not have been 
any fighting or quarreling on the subject, if Masons in Mexico had been 
willing to throw their strength toward securing that precious boon. It 
was all Catholics asked for. 

The Sefior asserts that another reprehensible means taken by the 
Church in its struggle was to influence the home. Again let me appeal 
to honesty. Since Catholics were denied religious liberty, why should 
they not try to exert every legitimate influence possible in an effort to 
gain it? Is there any reason why a man should not be influenced by his 
home ? Is there anything more sacred to him, outside of his duty to God ? 
Is there anything that gives him more happiness, more peace of mind, 
more solace in affliction, and more encouragement in trouble? Has his 
wife no rights which he is bound to respect? Must she bear his children 



144 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

in pain, and bring them up in love and labor, yet have nothing to say 
about them? Should she permit a husband to banish every bit of relig- 
ious consolation she has ? Women are naturally more religious than men. 
Their sensitive natures require more religious solace than men think 
they themselves need. Is it not fair that the family be considered a unit ? 
While the man speaks, under the laws of Mexico, for his family, surely 
that family must have some influence on what he says. Where are there 
more beautiful and satisfactory homes than those under the influence of 
the Catholic Church? Where is there more purity in the family life? 
Where, therefore, is there a better influence on the morality of any peo- 
ple? Seiior Castellot's idea seems to be that the "lord and master" has 
the right to persecute everything that his wife and children hold dear, 
and that they must not open their mouths in protest or attempt to defend 
that which is their joy and consolation. Is this common sense? If the 
Seiior can prove that the Catholic religion of a wife is an injury to her 
husband and a destruction to the home, he can do something that no other 
writer would even have the temerity to attempt. 

•I- 
You say, Seiior, that the Church " kept amassing and enjoying riches, 
and kept counselling humility while exercising tyranny." In the name of 
fair play, tell your fellow Masons in America what riches the Church had. 
You mention prelates and dignitaries " clothed in vestments of gold and 
crowned with mitres studded with diamonds and rubies, symbolizing the 
tears and blood of the faithful." I am pretty confident, Sefior, that if I 
took the diamonds and the rubies out of all the mitres owned by a Mexi- 
can bishop, you would very carefully examine them before agreeing to 
exchange them for the gold, diamonds and rubies possessed by your own 
wife and daughters, if you have any. I never in my life, and I am twenty 
years a priest, saw a gold mitre studded with diamonds and rubies. They 
exist, but so do polar bears — somewhere else. The episcopal rings on 
the fingers of the Mexican bishops I saw would not average in value $25 
each. The vestments used in ecclesiastical ceremonies are like the robes 
of your lodges — chiefly tinsel ; and the precious stones are usually cut 
glass. We have too much to do with money for charity and missions to 
buy these things with it. There are, it is true, some old and valuable vest- 
ments in Mexico, mostly the gifts of wealthy people ; but who owns 
them ? Why, the State, since the State took everything and claims every- 
thing. . Who owns the Churches, built by the piety of the old Spaniards 
and very often through the free labor contributed by the faithful people? 
The State. Who profited when these Churches and other religious insti- 
tutions were sold? Not the Church, for she was simply robbed, but pri- 
vate individuals. Look at the fortunes that were founded for some of 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 145 

your faithful " liberals," some of the very " Cientificos " you say we 
influenced. What about the Limantour fortune; but the Limantours 
are only one family that grew rich on the robbery. Was he a Mason? 
You know, Senor, that when Juarez robbed the Church to benefit the State, 
how much the State did not benefit, but you know who did benefit ; and 
you know that in many a Mexican lodge to-day are the descendants of 
the men who owe their private fortunes to thefts from the Catholic Church. 
Why conceal these things from American Masons ? You want their sym- 
pathy, why not tell them the truth? They'll honor you for that at least. 

Where are the riches of the Church ? Are they in the churches ? But 
the churches are not ours. Are they in lands? But the Church has no 
right to hold lands. Are they in private investments held in the name 
of others ? But your laws confiscate such things by an unjust inheritance 
tax in three transfers. Personally, I know but one rich Mexican bishop, 
but his wealth came from his father's estate. How much do the Mexican 
clergy receive in salaries? You know, my dear Sefior, that they receive 
very much less than Protestant clergymen receive here in the United 
States ; and that while many of them live in poverty none live in affluence. 
What do the people give to them ? In Mexico they give the smallest pos- 
sible coin, because it is the poor who support religion in Mexico as in 
every other country, and the little sacrifice they make would not amount 
to 25 cents a year for each worshiper. You know all this. Everybody 
in Mexico knows. Why leave your Masonic brethren in the United States 
under the supposition that the Church is wringing money out of the peo- 
ple to support her clergy in luxury and wealth, when you know we have 
no luxury and you know we have no wealth ; when you took all we had, 
when you closed our schools, stole our monasteries, colleges and univer- 
sities, and ended up by outraging our nuns and shooting our priests? 
If, for fair play's sake you will not tell the truth, will you do it for the 
sake of that Heaven you invoke so piously and which, I presume, you 
hope some day to reach — if there happens to be one, a fact, which, I pre- 
sume, you doubt. 

Then why, Sefior, do you speak of the " general unrest," and intimate 
that the Revolution was a rising of all the people, especially the poor? 
You know that the people of Mexico never had a chance to vote, never 
had an honest election, and that even the attempted honesty under Madero 
was a failure. You know that the ofiicials, not Catholics, but many of 
them Masons, manipulated the ballots to suit themselves. You know that 
entire haciendas were voted as a unit, and as the Jefe Politico directed. 
You know that the Revolutionist army does not represent the people of 
Mexico. If it does,- why did they take the arms away from the people, 
debase the coinage and suppress the newspapers? You know that the 



146 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 

people are pious and good, and that they want their Church and their 
religious ceremonies. You know that they still speak of the days when 
they could have their religious processions and worship God in the open. 
You know that if a poll were taken of Mexico to-day, that there would 
not be a Revolutionist allowed to remain in the country, and that the 
Church would have back her freedom ; and you know that a minority 
which controlled the power, because it controlled the army, has imposed 
its will upon the people of Mexico for fifty years. Why not tell these 
things to your Masonic brethren in America, and let them get a fair idea 
of just exactly what the situation is? 

But you say that you were " familiar with all the inner history of 
events," and you say, too, that '' Masonry laid the foundation of its 
patriotic and disinterested work, in open fight, as was to be expected, 
against the powerful interests already created." This is an acknowledg- 
ment that Mexican Masonry did actually interfere in politics and openly 
fought against the Catholic Church. But the insistence here has been 
that Masonry is purely a fraternal organization, which had nothing to 
do with politics. American Masons believe that, and yet, telling them 
that such is not the case, you still ask for sympathy. You rail against 
the " Cientificos," wha were all Masons and few of whom were even 
nominally Catholics. You speak of their overthrowing the " whole eco- 
nomic system and upsetting the national credit." For Heaven's sake, 
where is the national credit to-day? Where is the money that Diaz 
himself left in the treasury? It was there when he went away, but it 
was not there when Huerta came into power. You say that the clergy 
would not " sacrifice the power which afforded them the means to carry 
out the works of charity begun." Under the laws where did they have 
the power? And why should they be called upon to sacrifice the means 
that might have been given them for such a purpose? Would any Mason 
in the United States ask hospitals to sacrifice endowments, or the churches 
to sacrifice their missionary funds ? Then why ask American Masons to 
approve for Mexico what they would not dream of asking in the United 
States ? 

You certainly tell the truth, Senor, when you say that the revolution 
" incited by passion or spurred on by sordid interests has degenerated 
into the worst form of anarchy, whose end no one can predict." All that 
is perfectly true, but who brought on this anarchy ? The same sordid inter- 
ests, not represented by Masonry, but represented by men who used 
Masonry to promote their own selfish aims and purposes. Tt was pelf 
that the leaders wanted, and they knew those in power would give them 
that. They played fast and loose with the liberties of the people. They 
saw to it that laws were made to do away with religious liberty. They 



THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 147 

deliberately stole the wealth that had been consecrated to religion and . 
charity. In the name of " liberalism," they became the most illiberal of 
all men, and now wade knee-deep in blood. They whine out their com- 
plaints against the Church, and point to her, gagged and bound as they 
left her fifty years ago, to charge that she is responsible for the crimes 
for which they laid the foundation, and which are only a consequence 
of their own greed and lust. Why, Sehor, for fifty years you have had 
Mexico in your hands, and is this what you have of it? 

You say, let " the American Roman Catholic clergy allay its anger 
against Mexican Masonry and carefully weigh its attacks before making 
them, in order not to fall into untruth and exhibit itself before the public 
relying on theories and stories invented for the purpose." My dear Sefior, 
are the Laws of Reform theories and stories? If they are, then the com- 
pilation of the laws of Mexico, which you made yourself, must be lies. 
We have cited your laws. We have pointed out only what these laws 
have effected. We have shown you clearly that you gave no religious lib- 
erty to Mexico. We have itemized in detail a few of the outrages com- 
mitted, and which you yourself now say were committed. What stories 
have we told other than these ? You are convicted out of your own mouth, 
not out of anything that we have said. But in order that you may see 
that we are fair, or rather that American Masons may see that we are 
fair, let us here and now make a proposition for consideration to you and 
your brethren, and to all the Liberals of Mexico for that matter, and see 
if you will consent to it : 

Will you work to give to the Catholic Church in Mexico the same relig- 
ious liberty that is enjoyed by the Methodist Church, the Presbyterian 
Church, the Congregational Church, the Mormon Church, the Quaker 
Church, the Baptist Church, or any other church existing in the United 
States? Will you work to give to Catholic parents in Mexico, the same 
rights that Protestant parents have in this country, that Masonic parents 
have in this country? Americans think that this is religious liberty. 
American Masons think so. Do you think so? If you do, very well, 
pledge to try to get it for Mexico. If you don't, do us this favor at least : 
don't try to deceive your American brethren. Let them know just where 
you stand. Tell them you don't want religious liberty in Mexico, or you 
can not give it because if you do, the Church will be honored as she 
deserves, will receive back her stolen houses of worship, will reopen her 
schools and universities, will begin to lift those of your Indians that are 
now, because you killed our schools, in barbarism, and will teach your 
people the Ten Commandments, including this one : " Thou shalt not 
steal." We have an expressive saying, Senor, that covers your case : " Put 
up or shut up." Francis Clement Kelley. 



^ 



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